Guinea Pig
by Frozzy
Summary: In the city of the Avengers, abnormalities were considered mundane by default. Nevertheless, Aileen Palmer couldn't quite believe her bad luck when the God of Mischief went and accidentally zapped her with quite the dose of his sparkly magic. LokiOC
1. Prologue

**Guinea**** Pig  
**By Frozzy

* * *

**Prologue**

She was standing outside her apartment when Iron Man dropped down from the sky and cracked the sidewalk open with his skull.

"Jesus fucking _shit_!"

"No worries, hon," the automated voice of Tony Stark addressed her in what was definitely a pained groan. She watched with morbid fascination as the robotic suit stumbled to its feet and reached out to grab at the nearest wall. She had dropped her purse and the content had spilled out all over ground, announcing to the world that Aileen Palmer was preparing herself for paying off her student loan and very much cherished her grocery coupons. It was, needless to say, a humiliating moment that she really could have gone without. At least the press hadn't yet arrived at the scene. And they surely would. Wherever the Avengers went, the press was to follow.

"Well, will you look at that," Iron Man exclaimed with a look towards the coupons. "Fifty percent off on Mondays. That's a pretty hefty deal."

A large hand settled itself on Aileen's shoulder. It was surprisingly hard to scream bloody murder when the hand belonged to Captain America himself.

"Please seek cover, Miss. It's for your own safety."

"Incoming!"

Aileen never did get to seek cover. In the seconds that followed, she was covered by Captain America instead. It was the first time in her life that she was the owner of a human shield and the surrealism alone was enough to make her laugh out loud. But as long as she was fighting not to throw up her breakfast, she doubted that she could successfully summon even the tiniest of laughs.

"Sneaking off is the coward's way to fight, Rogers," a voice said from somewhere above. The Captain didn't move. He remained crouched above Aileen, shielding her from the person that Aileen guessed to be Loki. The crooked brother of Thor. His voice was too characteristic to mistake for anybody else's. She had heard it on the news plenty of times, and while Aileen naturally did appreciate a voice spun like the purest of gold, Loki Laufeyson was not her first choice on that list.

"You're not doing much better," Iron Man said. "Without your precious voodoo stuff, we would have the advantage here."

"Says the man inside a prowess enhancing suit."

"Prowess? Don't think flattery will make me go easy on you, bud."

At the slow rate that this was going, Aileen would grow claustrophobic beneath the armor of Captain America. She had trouble breathing already and she was surprised that the Captain hadn't noticed. As if Loki had sensed her thoughts, there was a sharp flash of green somewhere off to her left. The flash was followed by a shake that rocked the ground beneath them. In fact, the shake rocked the ground so hard that the Captain had to release Aileen. She tumbled onto her back and lost what little breath she had had left. It felt as though a boulder had been dropped onto her chest and for a moment she panicked so hard that her vision blackened out. Then she took her first breath, like a bloody newborn baby, and she rolled onto her side. She almost didn't hear Loki's voice above her coughing fit.

"So chivalrous, Captain," Loki said, clearly unimpressed with his opponents. "Always saves the maiden and neglects to save himself."

Stark decided to even out the odds. Or so Aileen guessed. Unfortunately, the man failed to take into account the fact that Loki was a trained warrior. And part God and a sorcerer. The man was part God. What was Iron Man and Captain America doing fighting him alone? The second that Stark charged at him, Loki had his staff ready and poised. The spell fired and hit Iron Man straight in the chest with a force that would have splintered the armor if the material had been any weaker. Aileen didn't know what Iron Man had counted on. She didn't know why he had taken a shot straight to the chest. That seemed rather suicidal. As it would happen, however, there was the matter of reflection. Perhaps that had been his goal? At any rate, the ray of neon green magic hit the chest plates of Stark's suit and was immediately cast off to the side. He took the brunt of the impact, but the beam of magic didn't stop.

At first, it didn't fully register that she had just been hit with a beam of real life magic. It was when she caught sight of Loki's startled expression together with the shocked expression of Captain America that she realized why her skin was feeling strangely cottony and tingly.

"You can't be serious," she heard herself say aloud, her voice echoing throughout the ruined street.

"I think it's time to wrap this up," Iron Man said and activated what Aileen thought was his big guns. He pointed them at the man clad in green leather, and Aileen hated him a little for not having done it sooner. Or more explicitly, before she had played bull's eye.

"If we must," Loki said. "I bid you all farewell. May we see each other soon."

He dematerialized on the spot, pixeling down until there was nothing left of himself to condense. It was like watching a video game. The old kind. They bad guy was killed and he transformed into those tiny colored squares that disappeared into thin air.

"I hate guys with flashy exists. That's my trademark," Stark said and lowered his suit to the ground. He deactivated his weapons when his feet hit the ground next to Aileen. Aileen was feeling decidedly sick where she was sitting on the ground with her knees pulled up to her chin. She didn't care who she was flashing. She felt too bad to care about the length of her skirt. Her stomach was rolling in on itself in what felt like miniature seizures put on repeat. To top it off, her head was swimming and her eyes weren't much better off. When the two Avengers crouched down next to her, she bet that she looked as waxen as the forgotten prunes in the back of her father's kitchen cabinet.

"I'm afraid you have to come with us to our headquarters, Miss," Captain America addressed her apologetically. "Will you be alright with that?"

She promptly threw up on his shield.

Stark gave a low whistle: "If you gotta do it, you better do it big."

"Tony."

* * *

**Edited March 19, 2013 **


	2. Chapter One

**Guinea Pig  
**By Frozzy

* * *

**Chapter One**

As a child, Aileen had never been though a so-called hero phase. Not with her father, not with her uncle, not with a male teacher, not with anyone. She had never been a princess or a damsel in distress who went through life searching for her white knight. She had never had a hero phase. Now she was stuck in a room with five of them. This was God's way of punishing her for not giving into peer pressure as a kid. She understood that now.

"She has to be monitored."

"We can't keep her here like a pet."

"If we found no problems, she's a free bird. Spread her wings and all that gibberish."

"You're saying that we should let a potential threat to the city walk outta here completely unsupervised and pick up the left overs once she has turned batshit? As in past tense?"

Stark supported her release. The Captain was in doubt. Hawkeye and the redheaded woman wanted her put under surveillance. Bruce Banner was fairly indifferent and Thor was absent. The agents over by the door had remained freakishly silent for the entire time that the group of six had occupied the Avengers conference room. As far as Aileen understood, the discussion was entirely unnecessary since the guy who held the actual last word had failed to show up yet. She was not amused.

"When does this Nick Fury arrive?" Aileen cut through the needless bickering. She sounded every bit as cranky and put out as she felt. Five heads turned to stare at her as though they hadn't expected her to speak up. She still felt woozy and she was sure that it showed, but that didn't mean she couldn't string together a coherent sentence. She had tried hangovers worse than this.

"I apologize for the wait, Miss Palmer," Rogers said for the fifth or eleventh time. Aileen had lost count half an hour ago. "I know that this must be very inconvenient for you."

"For us," Hawkeye added and received a blank stare from both Rogers and the redheaded woman.

"I'm the one who got ambushed and was zapped with Loki's magical stick. I've got the bitching privileges, so Arrow Dude can stick it where the sun doesn't shine."

"We know. And Tony, don't comment on that. I'm sure that Mr. Fury will arrive any minute now. None of us could have foreseen what happened, but we're truly sorry that you got dragged into this."

"Actually, I upgraded my armor last night and this might have been why the spell was repelled. I'm working on the calculations right now. Although, I've never been able to scientifically account for Loki's magic, so the effort is most likely a waste of time. But don't say I'm not trying."

"This isn't legal."

"Come on," Stark said. "Every kid would love to be spend time with the Avengers. This is like a free trip to Disneyland. Or just a free trip. Are you a college kid?"

Tony Stark changed conversation topics the way that a bulldozer demolished houses. Abrupt and to the point. Pinching the bridge of her nose to alleviate the faint throbs of an upcoming headache, Aileen knew that she had tempted fate that morning by leaving her apartment fifteen minutes earlier than usual. If she had known that her spontaneous decision would have resulted in getting zapped with fairy godmother magic at seven o'clock in the morning, she would have slept in.

"Miss-"

Whatever the Captain had been about to say was cut off when the door to the conference room opened with enough force to rock the room. A man dressed entirely in black, including an eye patch, floated into the room with a folder in one hand and looking as though he ate puppies for breakfast. Almost instinctively, Aileen wanted to misbehave. And she was the type to obey her authorities. That said a lot about the atmosphere in the room.

"Aileen Palmer, age twenty-six, blood type AB, recent graduate of Brooklyn Law School and currently unemployed, deceased mother, no siblings and no criminal record to speak of. I'm Nick Fury, director of SHIELD."

Aileen wasn't impressed by the lineup of facts. She was severely unimpressed and it showed in her next comment.

"Is the eye patch doctor's orders or is it a fashion statement?"

"I like this one."

"Shut it, Stark," Fury replied. "Everybody out except for Stark and Rogers. Now."

Surprisingly, the agents by the door left as well. Aileen very nearly jumped out of her skin when the remaining three men moved in tandem and sat down in the chairs surrounding the oval table. The action seemed rehearsed and the seating had to be habitual. Stark picked the seat next to hers and reached down in his pocket, pulling forth a high-tech device that he immediately began fiddling with. Rogers kept his attention fixed solely on Fury. Aileen could nearly make out the rainbows in the man's eyes as he studied his superior.

"Miss Palmer, I want you to temporarily reside within the Avengers HQ as of this very minute," Fury announced. He looked at Aileen as though he was expecting a hissy fit.

"You mean here? Stark Tower?"

"Previously Stark Tower," Tony supplied offhandedly.

"Avengers Headquarters," Fury said. "And yes."

Strangely, she didn't feel like objecting. She wasn't dumb. She was fairly intelligent. At this point, she had admitted to herself that it was extremely odd, if not outright alarming, that she had been zapped with a God's magic and didn't feel any different. She ought to feel different. She had been hit with a spell and she had seen enough movies and read enough books to know that spells were a bad thing when cast from a bad guy. Loki was bad. She knew it was for the better if she stayed here.

"How long is temporary?"

"Considering that your situation is the first of its kind, we will have to take some tests and monitor you for an infinite amount of time until we are absolutely certain that nothing is wrong."

"What about my apartment?"

"There is no apartment. Not after today."

"And my stuff?"

"We've already dispatched a unit that will search through the rubble and gather whatever they can."

"So I'm homeless and own nothing but the clothes off my back."

"Perfect conditions for starting anew in the company of our delightful posse," Stark confirmed a little too insensitively.

"Sir? Might I suggest some other solution?"

"And what would you suggest, Rogers?"

"The headquarters isn't fit for civilians. It's a danger zone and we can't very well confine her to a cell to keep her safe. Run whatever tests you need to run and then perhaps station Miss Palmer elsewhere? Under supervision, of course?"

Fury seemed to consider the suggestion. The Captain had to hold the largest vote next to the director himself.

"I'm with whatever he said," Stark interjected. He had stopped tinkering with his toy and was now paying attention to the conversation.

"Thank you for volunteering, Stark."

"You mean Tony?" Rogers asked. "You want to give Tony the responsibility of a person? A woman? I don't think-"

"I have a girlfriend, you know."

"You have a friend who is a girl."

"And what would you know about relationships? I'm sure you had some nice intimate moments with the penguins out in the Arctic Ocean."

"Shut up both of you. Stark, this is an order."

"I'll take her if you insist. You get to explain it to Pepper, though."

Aileen didn't know what to say.

Typically, in the movies, this was the part were the female lead would lose her shit and go nuts, screaming and yelling and generally just being a whiny bitch. Aileen didn't feel like doing any of those things. Her life would be put on hold and she was set to become a guinea pig in the very near future. She knew when she had lost a battle, however, and this one battle had been pure road kill from the start. She wasn't wasting her breath on trying to convince herself otherwise. This was it. This was where life had led her and what a crappy guide life could be.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say here."

"Say what you want to say," Fury said.

"I'm in?"

Apparently that was enough of a green light for Fury to change the topic: "As long as we have no data to go by, Thor should be our best option in case that any abnormalities should occur. He'll stop by Stark's place and do a once over of Miss Palmer."

Stark raised his hand. "Isn't he still filling in for his father, working on that new political reform?"

"Then pray that his damned brother decides to blast up half of the city and he's forced to make a premature return because we're running high and dry here. You're all dismissed. Rogers, escort Miss Palmer down to the laboratory."

Aileen Palmer, newly acquired pet of the Avengers squad, was moving in with Tony Stark with a notice of exactly zilch. She honestly thought she deserved quite a bit of points for being this cooperative. It didn't matter that she would have no roof over her head if she said no. She still deserved major extra points. This was a retelling of Cinderella and she had landed herself the lead role without ever being casted for it. Blonde had never been her color. She was brunette through and through.

* * *

Her arm was experiencing a severe case of anemia by the time that she was released from the laboratory roughly half a day later.

"Miss Palmer? I'm here to escort you to Stark's car," the redheaded woman from earlier announced upon entering the examination room. Aileen's blood samples were being wrapped up by the doctor and stored in containers for later analyses.

"We should introduce ourselves. Officially. I'm Natasha Romanoff."

"Aileen Palmer."

With polite gestures out of the way, the two women exited the laboratory with Romanoff in the lead.

"How does this work? This whole tower thing?" Aileen asked. She instigated conversation the second that the door to the laboratory closed behind them. She wanted the memory gone. Rubbing the inside of her elbow, she winced when her sore skin protested against the pressure. She had never been hospitalized, so she had no experience to draw from, but she was fairly sure that the last six hours she had spent inside the lab hadn't been all that considerate in nature. She wasn't supposed to feel this violated. Then again, that might just be a result of the situation in general.

"The lower levels are reserved for SHIELD," Romanoff explained curtly. "The upper levels have private quarters for the Avengers team."

"Should I know what SHIELD means? Or are you not at liberty to say?"

She thought she saw the taller woman crack a smile. "SHIELD is the official corporation legalizing what we do. They rank form board of directors to operating units. Whatever agents you see around here are employed by SHIELD."

"I thought the Avengers were the operating unit?"

"We are the independent operating unit."

"Implying that you're not employed by SHIELD?"

"Implying that we're elitist. You adapt well. That is an admirable trait."

The change of subject was abrupt and it took some seconds for Aileen to realize that the other woman had complimented her.

Truthfully, she did adapt well. Although, it would also happen that it was a trait which commonly backfired on its user and Aileen was no exception. Most of her bad trips came from belated shock, and it would catch her by outmost surprise if this situation didn't end up like that as well. She was counting on it, to be honest. For now she was working on keeping the shock postponed. She didn't want to lose her shit in public. It was a matter of pride, and she had given up enough of that for today. She was set to give up even more during these next couple of weeks. Perhaps it was childish, but if she couldn't control her surroundings, she could at least control herself.

The trip to Stark's home was a true test of her self-restraint.

Stark was a man of many words and over half of them were complete excess, filling out spots in the conversation that weren't there. So, instead of listening to the man that she was riding shotgun to, Aileen decided to carefully count the seams of the upholstery within the car. She wanted to keep her mind occupied. She knew to keep it occupied. She actually managed to keep it occupied with random calculations and unnecessary observations up until the point that Stark pulled the car to a permanent halt outside his New York home.

"You're a silent one, aren't you?" he questioned, looking at her over the rim of his no doubt custom sunglasses. "Never mind. Let's give you the grand tour. I'm putting you in the eastern guestroom, I think. It's been looking sad and dull for months. It could use some action."

The home of Tony Stark didn't disappoint. It was edges and straight lines all around, and Aileen refrained from touching anything at all. She was absolutely certain that her fingers would get cut off upon contact if she did.

"You should know that my AI likes to poke his sticky fingers into business that isn't his," Tony warned her. Nodding to herself, Aileen followed him as he made his way towards the eastern part of the building. He was walking at a brisk pace that clearly indicated his hurry to be done with playing host. She could work with that. She didn't feel like playing polite guest much longer.

"Your AI is gendered?" she asked and noticed that they had just passed what looked like an original Monet.

"Well, he would get offended if I called him an it."

"Why did you agree to this?" she asked. She stopped walking. Stark stopped as well.

"Compensation? We did sort of trash your home. And since I'm babysitting you, I get to ditch patrol duty. Boring stuff, I tell you. This is all working out great for each of us."

She was doing the man a lot of unintentional favors. "I need clothes. To sleep in."

"You sleep in clothes?"

She would have responded with a nasty comment if she hadn't been interrupted.

_Sir, may I suggest you choose from the garments that Miss Potts keeps stationed in the master suite?_

"Yes, there might be something in there that fits," Stark agreed and tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Jarvis?" Aileen guessed.

"He's an attention whore. Don't get fooled by his accent. And why do people always assume that they should talk to the ceiling?"

"Who is Pepper?"

"That's a difficult question. Next one, please."

"Alright. Do I get a face to go with the voice?"

Stark looked at her.

"Your AI?" she tried to explain. "Never mind."

She was delighted to find that the guestroom wasn't as high-tech as the rest of the penthouse. It was fairly low key, but still a great deal fancier than her old apartment. A stab of distress poked at her gut when she realized that she had lost most, if not all, of her personal belongings. She would have to restock everything that could be restocked. She would also need to get a hold of a phone so she could call her father. Strangely, she didn't remember the battle as having been that destructive or intense. Was her entire building ruined? To be honest, she didn't remember a whole lot of the incident, and she preferred it that way. Although, in hindsight she was pretty sure that nothing had been flying through the air except for Loki and Stark in his suit. And an entire building had collapsed without her noticing. Or being hit by the rubble?

"Mr. Stark?" Aileen addressed the older man as he returned with a pajama set that looked like an oversized sleeping bag. She gave him a pointed look before accepting it.

"Yes, my dear?"

"What if he comes here?"

"The bogey man?"

"Loki."

She couldn't phantom why he would do so, but the idea still stuck in her head.

"If he does, Jarvis will alert us."

She nodded. "And you will iron man his ass."

"Wouldn't miss that chance."

"Do you have cameras in here?"

"Are you implying that I have voyeuristic tendencies?"

"Do you ever just answer a question?"

"Why?"

She tried not to let the irritation show on her face, but she was pretty sure that she failed when Stark threw her a roguish grin. She felt like kicking herself in the gut when she realized that she actually found the man relatively likeable compared to the rest of the Avengers. He wasn't as serious. He let her forget that she was carrying around a spell cast by an Asgardian God wearing clothes tighter than her own. Stark was safe.

* * *

At 4:00 am that night, she woke because her skin was a luminescent green. Spending a couple of nonreactive minutes on studying the odd phenomenon, she knew that she would go apeshit in possibly one hour or two. Her skin was glowing like a light bulb. She sat up in the bed and quite calmly addressed the ceiling. "Uh, Jarvis, right? Are you… on? Don't frighten Stark, but I'm glowing green. Like, E.T. slime green?"

An hour later, she went apeshit in the presence of the Avengers squad and Nick Fury. And she kept going apeshit until they shoved a needle into her arm. Then she stopped.

"Contact Thor. I don't care how. Get him down here."

"What do you intend to do, sir?" Rogers asked.

"Make him confront Loki and strike up a deal. Loki is smart. He will listen if the situation is in his favor.

"Isn't that too aggressive an approach? Risking an unstable truce with the enemy for the sake of a civilian?"

"This would be why you've got bad luck with the ladies, Barton," Tony pointed out unhelpfully.

"I'm green!" Aileen gushed enthusiastically when she interrupted the discussion with what she considered to be a valid point. "Green like Loki. Pretty, pretty Loki."

"Did she call Loki pretty?"

"He is," Natasha said. Next to her, Clint shot her an incredulous look.

"Drop the banter," Fury ordered. "We've got work to do. Stark, you've still got full responsibility of the girl. Report any changes directly to me."

"Woman," Aileen objected groggily.

"Of course," Tony answered. "I'll hospitalize her. Never mind the fact that we're overpaying a gazillion other people to do exact same thing for a livi-"

"I turn yellow if I poke myself!"

* * *

**A/N:** This is slightly shorter than my standard length, but I gave up after two days of brainstorming and decided that my muse wanted the chapter to be cut like this – prematurely, I guess. Other than that, I think the chapter sets the premise pretty well without being too informative. I'm saving that chunk of plot for the next chapter. Also, there's a reason that this story is categorized under the Avengers movie. I generally don't read comics (not that I couldn't see myself doing it at some point in the future), **so** **do not expect the story to match the universe of the comics as well. **I'll only end up disappointing you. I know nothing of the comics. Absolutely nothing.

**Edited March 19, 2013 **


	3. Chapter Two

**Guinea Pig  
**By Frozzy

* * *

**Chapter Two**

When morning came around, the effect had subsided. The drug hadn't. Not fully. She still felt woozy. But she no longer glowed. That was a plus. Yet, an unnatural yellowish tint to her skin was still visible and Aileen had refused to eat breakfast until she was absolutely certain that it wouldn't worsen her newly developed skin condition. Needless to say, she was relieved to the point of fainting when the clock rounded three in the afternoon and Fury ordered Stark to bring her in to the headquarters. Of course, that relief quickly morphed into alarm when Tony relayed the message that SHIELD had snatched up one particular God in green. Both he and his brother would be amongst the welcome committee at the Avengers HQ.

"I don't understand," Aileen said. She was absently rubbing her stomach as they drifted through traffic at an unhurried pace. "Why is the guy your enemy when you can locate him that easily and call in a truce whenever you want?"

"It's complicated," Tony said and tapped in a series of numbers on the high-tech device in his lap. They were riding in a different car this time. This one came with a chauffeur.

"When are we there?"

"That eager to meet him?"

"No, thank you. You said you had no way of truly restraining him. Is that why this whole nemesis thing feels like a picnic? Because the bad guy has the upper hand?"

"I'm not obligated to tell you anything. But yes. That would be why."

They shouldn't have saddled her with Tony if they wanted her to remain ignorant. In the short time that she had been in the man's presence, she had learned that Stark absolutely sucked at keeping secrets. She figured it was a result of his laidback attitude towards life in general. He didn't care if she knew, so he didn't feel guilty telling her. She liked that. She really liked that.

"I'm gonna make an educated guess and ask if Fury is lending me out to Loki because he thinks he'llgain information on Loki's magic?"

Stark seemed to consider that one before he answered. Perhaps he considered not answering.

"Loki is like a black hole. Whatever information we have on him tends to turn out invalid. This was like an early Christmas gift. Also, Fury dropped the hint that this whole magic trick might have done its number on Loki as well, and that was why he decided to be cooperative this time around. Gloating bastard."

"So it backfired?" she asked. "The spell?"

"I have no idea."

"You just said Loki was affected by it, too," she protested. "That means it backfired."

"Perhaps that was the purpose of the spell. And if that was the purpose, then it didn't backfire."

"He cast a spell on you that he knew would affect him? Why would anybody purposely cast a dysfunctional spell like that?"

"It wouldn't be dysfunctional if its purpose was to be dysfunctional."

She gave up on the discussion.

"Thor is a God, too," she said. "He should fix it. Loki scares me."

To his credit, Stark remained mostly unresponsive.

"Loki is a sorcerer," he explained. "That's sort of a rare trait when you're from his dimension. Universe. Whatever. Magician, you know. Thor hasn't got magic like that. He's the brawn and Loki is the brains."

She had accepted that she was in need of assistance. Really, her skin was the color of a molding lemon. But she refused to be set aside in the rows of the audience. It was her body. Without her body, there would be nothing for Loki to inspect and nothing for Fury to gain. If Fury wanted to hand her over to Loki because he wanted information on Loki's magic, she wasn't just about to give it to him. She knew when to step back and let those with experience take the lead, but she would never blindly follow a secret organization with enough influence and power to turn the world on its axis and have it remain there. She wasn't interested in supporting the growth of an empire. SHIELD worked like an empire. At least it had the potential to do so. Aileen didn't trust Fury. She almost didn't trust the Avengers.

"This blows. And I'm still wearing my clothes from yesterday."

"Not dressed to impress?"

She almost took the bait. "I'm reminding my host that he needs to restock the wardrobe which he helped ruin."

"Why am I in charge of your wardrobe?"

"Because I doubt Fury wants me out on the streets looking like this."

"Good point. Bohemian or punk?"

"Neither. When are we there?"

"You're no fun."

"Considering that I might be walking death row right now, I'm not really in the mood to entertain," she said with a glower and gestured to her canary yellow skin. Earlier that morning, she had spent ten minutes in the shower scratching away at her skin to see if it the color would peel off. Now, with so much more at stake, she was considering an attempt at road rash instead. Sadly, the car was moving through traffic at a pace that was entirely too slow for that to work. Otherwise, she might have given it a shot. She did not want to be involved with the Avengers. She did not want to be the test subject of a homicidal sociopath. She didn't want the fame.

"Ease up," Tony assured her. "We're there in a couple of minutes. And stop fidgeting."

* * *

The Avengers headquarters was just as average as she remembered from the previous day. This time, she managed to take in more of the details. It was still disappointingly normal. She had wanted a spectacle, though she supposed that the situation itself was quite the spectacle. She couldn't ask for more. Stark had been right about that. If she had ever been a proper kid, this really would have been like a trip to Disneyland.

"This is it," Stark said and stopped by a random door. "In you go."

Once inside the room, she singled Loki out almost instantly. Surprisingly, he hadn't stationed himself in the corner of the room. He wasn't wrapped up in a cloak and he didn't have a hood pulled down in front of his face. He was standing next to the chair that Thor was sitting in. One of his hands was grabbing the backrest of the chair in a hold that looked nearly dainty compared to that of his brother's. It was the stature of a noble. His back was straight and his shoulders proud, emphasizing his impressive height. His black hair was a stark contrast to Thor's golden mane. Even the eyes, despite a shared blue hue, were not the same. Loki's stare was positively glacial, and right at this moment Aileen was suffering from the absolute brunt of it.

She decided to take it like a man. She let Tony take the lead.

"Express delivery. I charge ten a minute. You can transfer the money to my account," Stark greeted the room and barely acknowledged the fact that Loki was present. It was probably a coping technique.

"Miss Palmer, take a seat," Fury told Aileen. When she had to look away from Loki in order to pick a seat, she realized that she had held his stare from the minute that she had entered the room. And that was wrong. She had been scared shitless in the car with Tony not five minutes ago. Now, inside the HQ, she shouldn't feel compelled to seek him out. If anything, she should be experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath. Something was off. She was feeling off. Ignoring the insistent stares of both Rogers and Fury, she turned her attention back onto Loki. He was studying her with the same contemplative expression as before, but his lips quirked into a small decadent smile when she didn't move to take a seat.

"Miss Palmer," Fury repeated. "Take a seat and Loki will explain the situation as it stands."

"In terms that we can understand, please," Tony added in the background.

"Loki will explain?" Aileen asked. "Frenemies, really?"

Tony covered up his laugh with a cough, and Natasha turned her head to the side to hide her smile.

"Please, sit," Steve intervened. He stood up and offered Aileen his chair. She did as he asked, but only because she had been raised to have manners.

"Aileen Palmer," Thor greeted her. He showed off his pearly whites in a smile that seemed too large for his face. He certainly didn't seem grim. Neither did he seem all that otherworldly, except for his dress code. She nodded her head in response, not quite sure what the norm was for interacting with a God. Loki cleared his throat and Aileen was the only person who flinched at the sound.

"The spell is constructed to neutralize an opponent," he said, measuring the words as he spoke. "Whoever is hit will find that they cannot physically remain in the presence of my person without experiencing a multitude of unfavorable reactions. I cannot go into detail because the various processes are too complicated to explain without including Asgardian laws of physics and metaphysics."

"Well, that ain't working so well," Barton broke the silence, saying aloud what everybody was thinking. "From what I can see, this girl isn't in pain."

"I specifically designed the spell for the male sex. The effect will not be the same on the female sex."

"Magic is gender biased?" Natasha asked.

"If I wish for it to be."

"What about Miss Palmer's skin condition?"

Aileen felt oddly detached from the entire situation. She kept her eyes lowered to her lap and pretended to be in deep thought while she really just wanted to avoid Loki's survey of her person. She wasn't good with the limelight.

"It's residual energy. It will fade," Loki said. "But I will need to monitor the woman so I can study the full extent of the spell and reverse it. While the residual energy will fade, the spell is still active."

"You need to do what now?" she asked and grasped the edge of the table in an effort to control her wildly spiraling emotions. He could just as well have gutted her. It would have been less painful.

"My brother is a man of his word. We all have flaws, but if he says he will help you, he will," Thor said.

"Flaws?" Barton scoffed. "You really wanna go there, big guy?"

"Settle down," Fury said. "Miss Palmer, you are certain that you feel no different from yesterday? If you do, now is the time to say so and we can have our specialists look at you a second time. Your test results from yesterday showed no abnormalities. Understand that if we have no data to go by, you must accept the assistance of Loki.

"Your specialists can do nothing," Loki said impassively. He was studying one of the paintings within the room. He seemed to find great interest in it.

"And why would you help?" Aileen asked. Loki looked her over, seemingly sizing her up. She fought not to squirm in her seat. She had a soft spot for blue eyes, but Loki's were so blue that they cut through her skin like icepicks. It was not a nice feeling.

"Miss Palmer, is it?" he questioned and received a careful nod. "Very well. Miss Palmer, I assure you that it is not in my interest to harm you. You are, at best, entirely insignificant to me, and if you had not deemed it fit to interrupt me yesterday morning, neither of us would be in this most undesirable situation."

"You blame me?"

"I got a clever one."

She struggled not to let her irritation show. Thor intervened.

"Brother-"

"Why would I willingly put myself anywhere near your person?" Aileen burst, posing a very clear challenge that she regretted when Loki's eyes flashed in response. She recognized the warning within them. Emotion was a universal language. She backed down and broke eye contact.

"I feel no different," she said in a subdued voice.

Fury turned to Loki. "How do you wish to proceed?"

"You're not leaving her with him, right?" Natasha asked. So far, Banner had remained entirely absent from the conversation. He struck Aileen as the type to stay neutral. He reminded her a lot of herself, actually.

"I suggest we don't," Steve said and exchanged a look with Fury.

"We won't."

"I will need to make an initial diagnosis in order to figure out how the spell has manifested," Loki answered smoothly. "Preferably right this minute."

"What's the hurry?" Tony butted in. Once again, Thor prepared to step in and speak in favor of his brother. Loki beat him to it.

"My reasons are my own, Stark," Loki smiled and picked at his nails. "I have given you my word that no harm will come to the woman. I presume that is your first priority?"

"And what do you gain from it?" Barton asked. "Saving a person's life isn't exactly your M.O."

"I am not familiar with that term. Nevertheless, I would never have agreed to this arrangement if I thought it would be of any benefit to your organization. Besides from the saving the woman's life, you will not gain anything from this arrangement. Of that you can be certain."

In other words, he had seen straight through Fury's plan. He knew that they had contacted him both because they wanted Aileen fixed, but also because they hoped to gain insider information on his magic. Killing two birds with one stone. However, Loki was certain that SHIELD wouldn't strike gold and randomly make up some formula that would allow them to understand his magic and counterwork it. But Fury still didn't know why Loki had agreed to the deal. Bummer for Fury. Aileen didn't care. She was being saved either way.

"The deal is set and both parties are free to engage in activities that have not been addressed in the deal," Natasha said and thus confirmed that they did believe Loki to have an ulterior motive. "Of course that excludes all maiming, injuring and infliction of pain in general."

Aileen had a feeling that the last part was added for her benefit. She had no clue what was and what was not part of the deal that SHEILD had proposed to Loki. Basically, it sounded as though Loki was going to monitor her, and SHIELD was going to monitor Loki's monitoring of her. That was delightfully intricate and also a nice reassurance that she would never have a private one-on-one encounter with the God.

"I have given you no reason to trust me beyond the conditions of this deal, so I do not assume that you do," Loki said. They all disagreed to distrust each other. That was comforting.

"Very well," Fury said. "Romanoff and Barton, you're in charge of supervising the procedure. Escort Loki and Miss Palmer to the desired location and report back to me when you're done."

During the brief five minute walk, Natasha took the lead and put herself next to Aileen. Barton took up the rear, keeping a close eye on Loki. If Loki was bothered or amused by the open animosity, he gave no indication of such. He was suspiciously silent and compliant. It was giving Aileen the creeps. She had to remind herself not to look back over her shoulder for every minute that passed.

The desired location turned out to be a glorified storage room that so very obviously had been dressed up to fit its new purpose. For a storage room it was startlingly large. Then again, what would a team of superheroes and a secret organization need to store away that could be small?

"Alright," Natasha said with a look in Loki's direction. "The scene is yours. Do your diagnosis."

Aileen looked to Loki for orders. She could just as well accept her situation. Although, the minute that she turned around to face Loki, she experienced the oddest feeling of vertigo. The closest description was levitation. She immediately knew Loki was to blame for it. And as if that wasn't bad enough and already had her mind spinning dangerously fast with various bloodcurdling scenarios, the feeling came with a sense of euphoria. It felt addictive. A little bit like inhaling helium.

Then she was dropped to the ground, landing on her hands and knees. She felt giddy, as though she wasn't receiving enough air to have her brain function correctly, and her skin seemed to glow brighter than before. Then she realized that the floor was a different floor. A new floor. This was not the storage room in the Avengers Headquarters.

"Teleportation," Loki explained as he watched her get up on her feet. "Your mind should settle in a minute."

He had brought them to an abandoned warehouse down by the docks. She could hear the seagulls. The scenarios in her mind took a turn for the worse. This was CSI material at its best. The murderer got her in the same room as him and less than a minute later, he tricked the good guys into leaving her alone with him. Her hypothesis had been confirmed. The bad guy did have the upper hand and now this fact would become her demise. She was screwed.

"We needed the privacy," Loki said, unaware of her internal crisis. "I created an illusion to entertain Fury's puppets while we talk."

"You're not going to fix me?" she asked, her voice breaking with the confusion that she felt.

"Nothing is in need of reparation and I am sure you have realized this yourself."

In the dim lighting, Loki looked extremely sinister, and Aileen had to remind herself that he had mentioned talking. She couldn't speak if he killed her. He wanted her alive.

"How can that be?" she asked. "I was hit by the spell. I must be affected."

"If the spell does not hit the intended target, it turns defunct."

"Is that a general rule?"

"No. I want to make you an offer," Loki said and his voice took on a persuasive quality that wasn't lost on her. "You might say that I am taking advantage of the situation, but I do believe you can see the profit that is in it for you."

He was surprisingly civilized. Then again, most people were that whenever they wanted something.

"When a spell turns defunct, its energy disintegrates. This is why it loses effect. You, however, seems to have absorbed the energy. If I am not mistaken, this means that you now carry around part of the energy that manifests as my magic."

She tried hard to follow his line of thought. "I'm a witch now?"

"Sorceress would be the correct term. And no. Neither your body nor you mind is built to accommodate to such a type of energy. My guess would be that it lies dormant, ready to be commandeered by a master of the art."

"And you want to master it. Your magic that now resides in me. Do you need to slice me open to get it back? I might not agree to that."

She thought she saw him crack a smile similar to the one from earlier.

"As a matter of fact, I rather like the idea of a human vessel. Hence the offer I'm about to make."

"I get it," she began. "This deal with SHIELD is a cover up. Master and vessel. You want to be able to tap into the fairy dust you've injected me with. I'm your backup juice. That's nice."

"You will contain the excess energy that I decide to bestow on you, and you will do so without passing on the information to your beloved team of superheroes or I will personally see to it that you never pass on anything ever again."

That was a threat she could understand. Although, she couldn't understand how you could have excess magic. That Loki could have enough magic to inject her with part of it. But she figured it had something to do with timeframes in which he didn't hurl off spells as though they were bags full of candy. After all, whenever he didn't use his magic, he had to store it somewhere. Perhaps it wasn't all that easy to bottle it up, deactivate it or whatever. Perhaps that was why he needed somewhere to cast it off to, and now this opportunity had presented itself. She wondered if you could overdose on magic. If it felt as addictive as she suspected, it was very likely. Perhaps Loki intended to use her as a way of getting his stomach pumped whenever he OD'ed. It made sense. She was intrigued.

"Alright," she said, not all that surprised by Loki's easy win. "How do we do this?"

"Wedo nothing," Loki said in a just as unsurprised voice. "I will contact you when I have decided on the next step."

"What if I'm out?"

He studied her as though she had said something remarkably intelligent while she in fact had been incredibly rude.

"Never mind," she said. "Is there some sort of limit to how much juice you can stuff into me? Should I be worried that I'll overdose even if it's dormant?"

She was blabbering, but she was also taking the calm and analytical approach. It would do her no good to freak out now and throw a tantrum. Rather, she should attempt to harvest as much information as possible while Loki seemed willing to offer it. And that juice question of hers had sounded way too perverted, but chances were that Loki was too much of a social nutjob to pick up on it. She should probably scratch the whole juice metaphor. It was too suggestive simply on its own, and Loki didn't understand the reference either.

"Only the most foolish of humans would not be worried in the presence of a God."

"That's a little presumptuous."

With reflexes like a ninja, he was up in her face. His fingers grasped her chin and they promised pain if she should dare move. The thought didn't even cross her mind. She had enough trouble keeping herself from whining like a wounded animal. She had to remind herself not to test the waters like that in the future. She knew not to test the waters like that.

"If we would not have to return to your friends, I would mark this flesh for its impudence," Loki sneered and dug his thumb into her cheek until the pressure made her wince. She was surprised that he had kept it together for this long. She had been rather disrespectful and he didn't strike her as the tolerant type.

"My flesh is protected by the deal you made with SHIELD."

"Hardly. The deal is void," Loki said and let her go. He then proceeded to wipe his fingers down the front of his chest as if he had been dirtied. She wasn't all that offended. She hadn't had a shower in two days.

"Not from their point of view. The deal is still valid from their point of view, even if we are doing something different," Aileen said. Her legs were threatening to give out on her from the adrenaline that was rushing through her body. She was being awfully diplomatic considering that he had been second away from fracturing her jaw.

"I reckon we have overstayed. We must return."

Barely had the words left Loki's mouth before they were back at the Avengers Headquarters with Natasha and Barton.

"I will need to repeat the procedure once a day until I have the information that I need," he relayed to Natasha as he stepped away from Aileen who didn't even bother trying to release her inner actress. She went for looking dumb and hoped that Natasha and Clint would think of it as a side effect to whatever they had seen Loki and her doing. Because obviously Loki had done some mind trick on the two of them. They were way to calm. They should have been running around, alerting Fury of the fact that Loki had just teleported inside the headquarters. Aileen would get a daily session with Loki in which SHIELD believed that he was working on reversing his spell, while in fact he had threatened her into becoming his partner in crime. This was more action than what she had gotten in the past year. And what would they be doing each time that Loki cooked up his illusion and sent them off to wherever without anybody knowing? Chatting? Sharing beauty tips? Braiding each other's hair?

She was screwed and not in the good sense.

Tony was waiting for her with a glass of golden liquor in his hand when they returned to the conference room.

"Ready to return home, princess?"

"I need clothes," she reminded him.

"You need some color on your face, too. What did he do? Drain you of your blood?"

The stony look on her face was enough of an answer.

"Alright, so we won't go there."

"I need a phone, too. And a laptop."

She didn't care that she was demanding things from Stark that Fury had promised to replace. Fury was a dick.

"Easily fixed. Any preferred color?"

"Don't make it pink," she told him as they stepped into the elevator. "I will kill you if you make it pink."

"How about hot pink?"

Tony proved a nice distraction, and it was late into the evening when Aileen finally began dreading the upcoming day and her private session with the God of Mischief.

* * *

**Edited March 19, 2013 **


	4. Chapter Three

**Guinea Pig  
**By Frozzy

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Aileen was a fairly levelheaded person. As with every other event in her life, she decided to cope with this one through research. If you were always prepared, you were less likely to experience a bad outcome of whatever predicament you were in. And clearly, her education had screwed her six ways to Sunday if she was spending her morning on surfing the internet for information on Norse Mythology. And one Norse God in particular. Tony had provided her with an extensive wardrobe, a phone, and a laptop that had to have cost more than the wardrobe and the phone combined. She felt spoiled and vaguely guilty. Then she reminded herself that she was looking forward to an afternoon spent in the presence of Loki Laufeyson, and suddenly she didn't feel all that guilty anymore.

She didn't know what had compelled her to play along with Loki's scheme. Part of her knew that she had done it out of curiosity and another part told her that it was out of necessity. She hadn't been in any position to do otherwise. Also, Loki proved a puzzle. Amidst the sneers and the haughty attitude, there was something painfully raw about him. She suspected that she might even understand his perspective if he should choose to let her in on it. Perhaps it was teenage rebellion that had finally caught up with her. Nonetheless, she had made a decision and had to stand by it.

"That's absurd," she said when she finished the last paragraph of the text on the laptop screen.

"What's absurd?" Tony asked as he strode into the room with an apple in hand. Aileen did a double take at the sight of the fruit. Tony didn't strike her as a type to randomly snack on fruits. He would rather go for a glass of bourbon. She opened her mouth, ready to comment on the odd sight, when a second person entered the room behind him.

"Hello," the woman greeted Aileen with a smile that was the epitome of professionalism. "I'm Pepper Potts. Miss Palmer, correct? I understand that you will be staying here with us as a favor to SHIELD?"

"I prefer to think of it as daycare," Aileen smiled and shook the other woman's hand. She had a grip firmer than Aileen's own. "And you're Tony's what, exactly? I'm sorry, he's failed to mention it."

"Failed to define it," Tony said and Pepper shot him a look of disapproval.

"I'm his girlfriend," she said. Tony made a muffled sound that sounded like a protest.

"Must be a handful," Aileen noted.

"It has its moments."

"I see you've dropped your glow stick disguise," Tony said with a vague gesture in Aileen's direction.

"It disappeared overnight. Like Loki said it would," Aileen answered. She was silently wishing that the color wouldn't reappear when Loki began working his mojo on her. That would be rather difficult to explain when he was supposed to fix her. Plus the fact that she ultimately preferred her normal skin color as opposed to a sickly yellow one.

"So, when are we headed for the headquarters?" Aileen asked and cringed inwardly at the oddness of that sentence. "I assume that's why you've interrupted playtime?"

"About that," Tony began, scratching his beard. "I've got to fix some equipment, so I'm stopping by a little earlier than two pm when you have your appointment. You wouldn't mind waiting that one hour in the headquarters until your session is up, would you?"

She was mildly impressed that he had bothered asking. "Can I bring the laptop?"

"Don't see why not. Bring the television if you'd like."

"I can't bring the television."

"Well, I should take my leave now. It was nice to meet you, Miss Palmer," Pepper cut in and offered Aileen a quick smile. She turned back towards Tony and Aileen averted her eyes to the windows and the idyllic scenery of the ocean. When she could hear Pepper's retreating feet, she looked back at Tony who looked like he had just swallowed the canary instead of his girlfriend's tongue.

"We're taking the car?"

"Unless you want to suit up and take a walk on the wild side, then yes."

With a humorless snort, Aileen got up from the couch and stretched her legs.

"What?" Tony insisted incredulously. "No sarcastic comeback?"

"I'm saving my energy for bigger fish."

"Ouch. Can't compete with a God, can I?"

She shook her head, smiling a little at the engineer's antics.

"You're an oddball, Stark."

"I take that as a compliment."

Some days she honestly thought that something was indeed wrong with her. It shouldn't be possible for a normal person to adapt this easily. Granted, she had been at a standstill in her life prior to the moment where Iron Man dropped down from the sky, but surely boredom couldn't be the sole reason for her spontaneous change in lifestyle. Then again, people did stupid things when they were bored and she was no exception. She could have used something a little more ordinary to spice up her life, but you never really got to choose where life led you. Or how it chose to kick you in the ass. Perhaps she just wasn't a normal person and that was why she hadn't lost her shit yet. That would be epic. Not only was she eating out of Loki's palm, but she was a nut job, too. The years really had been good to her.

"You done reminiscing? Because this is sort of awkward."

"I need to pack up the laptop."

"Take your time."

"I think I will."

* * *

She had made camp in one of the lounge areas of the headquarters, when Steve entered the room together with a female agent. Aileen remembered having seen on an earlier occasion. For a moment, she wondered if she should leave. Then she decided against it and remained seated on the couch. The two of them wrapped up whatever conversation they had been engaged in and the female agent left while dialing a number on her phone. She was a pretty brunette, not much unlike Aileen's own coppery brown color. Her hair was dyed, of course. Her real hair color was a dull brown. Once you were caught in the dye loop, it never seemed to stop. Aileen had been caught in it since the age of fifteen. Even the least fashionable of persons wouldn't want their roots to show. It was just ugly. Unless it was done purposely, of course.

"You're here early," Steve said as he sat down in the armchair opposite of the couch.

"Tony had some stuff to do," Aileen replied and closed a couple of windows that she had bookmarked. They both looked up when Thor emerged in the doorway, followed by Banner and Natasha. Aileen felt unexplainably crowded. She got up from the couch and excused herself.

"Fresh air," she replied when Natasha asked her where she was going. It was a nice day. The sun was shining and the temperature had risen to a pleasant warm buzz. Nobody would find it odd that she left.

She located the way to the deck of the building easily enough. The difficult part was to get access. Although for some reason she managed to do that as well. She had a distinct suspicion that Jarvis was part of the security system. Outside on the deck, she had logged onto her computer and was browsing through a couple of bookmarked pages when she felt a hard pang to her chest. Looking up, she managed to locate Loki where he standing off to the side, leaning up against the balcony railing with the elegance of an aristocrat.

"I have not given birth to a horse and neither do I have a wife," he greeted her. "These myths of yours are as offensive as your unhealthy tendency to soak your food with fat."

"Hello," Aileen replied for lack of anything better to say. Loki pushed himself off the railing and glided closer to where she was seated on the ground in the true style of a peasant. For a brief moment, as his eyes swept across her form with obvious disapproval, she felt dirty. She pushed it aside, however, and focused on the fact that Loki had arrived thirty minutes too early and that he appeared to be in a relatively friendly mood. He had a reason to be, she reminded herself. She had given him what he wanted. She was his human vessel for excess magic. Why should he be sulking?

"So, Sleipnir is fictive?" she asked, hesitating with the pronunciation of the name.

"Very much so."

"Is there a reason to why you're here? I mean, you're early," she finished lamely and received a wicked smile in response. He was definitely in a friendly mood. That didn't bode well.

"I had a free spot in my schedule," he said and glanced down at the computer in her lap. She closed the screen.

"You operate on a schedule? Sir," she added as an afterthought and then immediately regretted it when Loki sent her a look that could only be described as mildly confounded. She didn't know why she had said it either. Or well, she did, but somehow it would just feel too strange to address him by his correct title. 'Sir' had been the closest she could come to 'your highness' without feeling like an idiot when she said it. She thought she had done well. She supposed it made sense if Loki didn't receive a lot of respect in this realm. She must have caught him off guard with her politeness. Not that she respected him. She just didn't want her head cut off prematurely. Didn't kings decapitate whoever they were dissatisfied with? She thought it better to be polite. She had no super powers to assist her if Loki should decide to kill her.

"You were a Prince. Back in Asgard. Right?" she asked. "It says so in the… it says so."

She wasn't stupid enough to address the matter of heritage, but surely this was a safe enough question to ask. Everybody knew the story. It was public knowledge. There was probably more to it, but Aileen didn't really want to know. You just didn't mention family to any of the Avengers.

"My heritage is complicated," Loki smiled without truly smiling.

"But you were a prince?"

"What I once was is of no consequence to what I am now."

"And that is?"

"Your persistence is admirable."

"Are we doing small talk?" she asked. "Why are we doing small talk? We have a mission to accomplish."

She had to stop watching those blasted blockbusters. That line had been stupid. She had to stop watching Loki. He was looking spectacularly good from this angle with his looming shoulders and toned thighs right in her line of vision. She was starting to appreciate the fact that the men around the Avengers headquarters had a dress code that consisted of either spandex or leather. And that they could carry it off.

"Brother!" Thor's booming voice interrupted whatever answer Loki had been about to give. "I was sure it was you!"

Aileen watched as the entire Avengers squad, minus Clint and Bruce, made their way across the deck to where Aileen and Loki were situated. They certainly took their job as a unit seriously. Were they ever apart?

"What is this?" Steve demanded to know. Strangely, Aileen was the one to take offense.

"A picnic. Invites only," she answered curtly. Steve opened his mouth to answer when Thor stomped up to Loki and grabbed him by the shoulder in a display of misguided brotherly love. Loki resisted the gesture, on principle it looked like, and it resulted in an odd grappling fight that ended when Loki smacked Thor over the head with his staff that he conjured out of nowhere. Aileen's heart swelled in size when a brief look of desolation crossed Thor's features. It made him resemble the stray dogs that used to live down the street of her old apartment. It made her dislike Loki a little bit more, and she was surprised to find that she had liked him in the first place.

Ten minutes later, they were back in the glorified storage room and were getting ready for the second fake healing session. This time Steve and Tony was supervising the procedure.

"What do they see?" Aileen asked, observing the surroundings of the same abandoned factory from the previous day. She had to remember to put in a request for the next session. What was wrong with trees and grass?

"Clarify your question."

"The illusion. If I'm asked about it. What do they see us doing?"

"Something similar to what we will be doing now."

"And that is?"

"Sit down," he ordered and gestured to a table that once had been part of an assembly line. Or so she guessed. She ran a hand across the surface, wiping off dust and dead insects. It wobbled underneath her weight, but it didn't break. Her nerves were sizzling with adrenaline, partly because of the remote location and partly because Loki was reaching out towards her, his hand settling itself against the side of her neck. She was seconds away from losing consciousness.

"Calm yourself," Loki said and the dulcet tones of his voice ran along her tense shoulders like the purest of silk. He was close. So close that her every instinct was telling her to uncross her legs so he could step even closer. Nothing was as basic as human contact, regardless of who you were or were not affiliated with. Whether good or bad, the body didn't differentiate. That was what the brain was for. And her brain wanted nothing to do with Loki. A sudden and rather violent rush of coolness spread across her skin. It originated from Loki's hand by her neck, and Aileen was propelled back to the present.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a voice that was a lot harder than her resolve.

"It is a side effect. It recognizes me. My magic."

She didn't have to ask in order to know that he meant his magic. He spoke of it as though it was a living ting. Could he feel it inside of her? That was just perverse. And he was currently reuniting with it? Because it had resided in her body and had thus been absent from him?

"You haven't told me what we are doing," she said. He was absolutely still as he stood before her. His hand was heavy and eerily comforting where it rested along her neck and shoulder. His eyes, clear and bright, were fastened on a point near her shoulder. In a moment of sudden clarity, Aileen understood exactly what he was doing. He was injecting her with more of his magic. That knot of coldness resting deep within her stomach had to be his magic. He was testing how much she could contain. Any minute now, she would choke on it. She would die. It must have been obvious that she was panicking, because Loki's hand shifted to encircle her neck and a sound of discomfort escaped her lips.

"Do not mistake my amiability for lenience. If you run, I will not take kindly to it. This was our arrangement. You will honor your word."

Even if she had wanted to run, she couldn't. She was shaking all over.

"You must relax," he instructed.

"Isn't it enough that I'm not putting up a fight," she said a little too hysterically. "I don't take well to chokeholds. Sorry."

He studied her for a couple of terse seconds. Then he released her and she all but bolted off the table. He gave her a couple of minutes to regain her composure.

"You injected me with more of that green stuff," she said, breathing hard and loud in the silence of the large building.

"I will retract it," he assured her, sounding impatient for the first time that day.

"No," she blurted. "You're not doing more of that… cold stomach thing. No. Wait. You should remove it. Retract it, was it? Get it out. Now."

Something had shifted on Loki's face when she looked at him.

"What?" she asked.

It took nearly fifteen minutes for Loki to retract the extra magic that he had injected her with, but not because it was a difficult procedure. They had to stop every third minute for Aileen to throw up the imaginary ball of ice inside her stomach. It was painful. She hoped that Loki felt guilty. By the time that they were done, she felt like a ragdoll that had been dragged along the pavement only to end up at the bottom of a freezer with half a cow on top of her. She felt like crap.

"I feel like shit," she said after resurfacing from the last heave. Whatever tiny smidgen of dignity that she had had prior to this moment was now completely gone. But in her current state, she couldn't care less.

"You cannot return like this," Loki said and he actually sounded amused. "Look here. Up. At me."

Sluggishly, she managed to do as he requested. He touched her forehead, really just brushing his fingertips from one temple to another, and Aileen felt as though she had been born anew.

"That's a neat trick," she said and touched her forehead where Loki's fingers had grazed it seconds ago. When he watched the gesture with a little too much intensity, she got the feeling that it had been a bad move on her part. She quickly lowered her hand to her side.

"You are bleeding."

She blanched. "What?"

"Internal pressure from the extraction," he said as though it was meant to calm her. "Allow me."

He was there, doing it, before she got around to allow him anything. His thumb wiped away the sticky wetness that trailed down the side of her chin, and she wondered how she could have missed it in the first place. How had she not tasted it? When he pulled back, the blood was a stark contrast against the paleness of his thumb. Aileen heard herself clear her throat before she had even thought of doing it. She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and removed the last traces of blood.

"You should wipe it off," she said and gestured to his thumb.

"I will not soil my clothes with the blood of a human."

"They hardly classify as clothes. And you're not wiping it off on my shirt, either. Wipe if off on the ground."

"The ground is dirty."

"If dirt bothers you, you should have brought us somewhere else."

Her comment didn't have the effect that she had intended. He didn't get angry. Instead, he lifted his hand up to his face and proceeded to suck the thumb clean. Aileen would have said something about bacteria and dirtiness, but she was too flabbergasted to manage anything beyond a strangled intake of breath.

"That was unnecessary," she said when he had finished.

"Prepare yourself."

Without further warning, he brought them back to the storage room and to a bickering Tony and Steve. This time, Aileen only experienced a mild dizziness. Could you get used to teleporting?

"I'm telling you that it's-"

"Miss Palmer," Steve cut off whatever Tony had been about to say.

"Hey. We're back," Aileen greeted the two men. She realized her error immediately after she had spoken. They weren't back. They had been there, in the storage room, the entire time. Together with Steve and Tony.

"Back?" Steve asked.

"You did look lost for a moment," Tony cut in, obviously mistaking her slip of the tongue for something different than what it had really been. The crisis had been averted with the help of Tony's eccentricity. Aileen wanted to get the hell out of there before she slipped up again and Loki would have to do something drastic like killing them all. With the element of surprise on his side and Tony without his suit, Loki might even succeed in the task.

"Can we go home now?" she asked, quite determined not to look in Loki's direction. "I have some stuff I need to finish before going to sleep."

It was a blatant lie of course, and she was surprised that nobody picked up on it. She had no job and she had finished her education months ago. Why would she have any deadlines on anything?

* * *

At 3 am, she woke up when a branch got caught in the rain gutter outside her window and kept whipping against the glass. She was grateful. In her sleep, she had been emerged in a cold sea of red and green. She didn't care that dreams were messages from your subconscious. It was your subconscious. You weren't supposed to know of it. It should stop sending you messages. She fell into a dreamless sleep around the time that the digital clock on the nightstand passed 5 am.

* * *

"I'm staying here until Fury is done with me, aren't I?" she asked Tony the following morning. She was buttering her toast and kept her eyes fixed on the piece of bread while she spoke.

"Probably, yes," Tony admitted, flipping through the various news channels on the TV. She took a bite of her toast and processed the information.

"Are you happy with this?" she asked and gestured to herself and the penthouse.

"Not particularly."

She nodded. "Can we file a complaint to Fury?"

"As long as you're Fury's way to a temporary truce with Loki, he isn't gonna let you go anywhere without supervision. Sadly, this here is your best option. I am your best option."

"Not sadly. Just inconvenient. I should be out applying for a job."

"Oh, right. Because you were going places with your life before this happened."

She glowered at him. "Dick."

_Sir? _Jarvis' automated voice interrupted the discussion._ I'm experiencing interference from an outside source. _

Tony took it in a stride. "What's the source?"

_I do not know, sir. _

"Jarvis, how many times do I have to say-"

"I think it's Loki," Aileen said on a sudden whim. She rubbed a hand across the front of her chest where she could feel a cool sensation that reminded her of the sorcery session back in the warehouse.

"Yeah?" Tony asked, obviously suspicious of such a claim. She figured she probably shouldn't have said anything, but that was too late to change now.

"Yes."

The word had barely left her mouth before Loki materialized right in the middle of the kitchen. He surprised both of them by pulling out a chair and placing himself in the seat.

"Greetings, Stark. And Miss Palmer too," he greeted the two of them. He picked an orange from the blue bowl placed in the middle of the table. Surprisingly, the fruits weren't fake as Aileen had always assumed. Loki managed to peel half of the orange before Tony eventually recovered from his shock. Aileen had recovered fairly quickly, but she had been distracted by the slow and measured movements of Loki's wrist as he had begun peeling the orange.

"Did you want anything?" Tony asked.

"I have to cancel today's session," Loki announced and began separating the orange slices. The domesticity of the act was downright disturbing, and Aileen suspected that it was a first time for Tony as well. He looked as confused as she felt.

"Alright," Tony answered and shot Aileen a somewhat helpless look. "Does Fury know?"

"Most likely not," Loki replied and stood up from his seat. The orange slices were untouched where he had lined them up along the edge of the table.

"I will contact you when we can resume our sessions."

"Does Fury know that?" Tony tried again.

"I'll let you be my messenger."

"Great," Tony exclaimed when the God disappeared from sight. "He's saddling us with Fury. That's fantastic."

Shrugging, Aileen plucked one of the orange slices from the table and plopped it into her mouth. The cold hadn't left her chest and she suspected that Loki was still around somehow, enjoying the aftermath of his impromptu visit. It struck her suddenly that she had a way of monitoring Loki. The coldness in her chest had to be a side effect of his nearby presence. She nearly gagged on the orange slice when she realized the advantage that this gave her. In fact, she did gag on the orange slice, and Tony would have performed the Heimlich maneuver two times over if she hadn't convinced him that she was fine.

"So, I have a free schedule today?" she concluded, her voice slightly raspy from the coughing fit.

"You and me both."

"Why don't you invite Pepper out for dinner?"

Tony actually snickered at the idea.

"Why don't you grow a beard?" he suggested and Aileen honestly didn't understand what she had done wrong. She stared after him as he exited the kitchen. Then she looked back at the orange slices and tried to shake off the burning coldness pressing down on her chest.

* * *

**Edited March 19, 2013 **


	5. Chapter Four

**Guinea Pig  
**By Frozzy

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Four days later, Loki still hadn't contacted SHIELD, and Aileen was experiencing a severe case of cabin fever. Without the daily sessions, she was stuck inside Tony's a little too grandiose penthouse, and despite the fact that Jarvis made excellent company when he wasn't otherwise engaged, he sort of made you want to cut his power cables as well. Provided that he had cables, of course.

When Tony had relayed Loki's message to Fury, the man had stayed surprisingly calm. Loki called the shots, he had told Tony. Perhaps Aileen should have been angrier that Fury hadn't pressed the matter of her health and sent out a search party for Loki, but it seemed like too much effort on her part when she already knew that she was perfectly healthy. However, she had to keep up the pretenses, and so on the third day, she had complained about stomachaches. Now, on the fourth day, her stomach truly was suffering from lack of fresh air. Or so she supposed. It could have been anything, really, but she chose to believe that cabin fever was to blame. She didn't want to entertain the notion that it could be the spell. Not when Loki was out getting his rocks off somewhere unknown.

"Is there a reason why you're hanging out the window like a sack of potatoes?" Clint asked. Tony still had business to do in the headquarters. With Loki off duty, Aileen had to sit through those long hours twiddling her thumbs, because for some reason she still wasn't allowed to wander about without supervision. Clint was her supervision for the moment.

"No reason," she answered and threw him a false smile. Thor chose that minute to make his appearance. He was struggling with a can of tuna. Aileen immediately grasped the opportunity to escape Clint's scrutiny.

"Mr… uh, Thor?" she addressed the larger man.

"Miss Aileen Palmer," Thor returned her greeting much more successfully than her own. A bit too successuflly.

"Let me help you with that," Aileen said and plucked the can from his hand. By the time that she was finished with the can, Clint had decided to take his leave and in a most timely manner, as well. This was the perfect opportunity to delve into the question of Loki's family history. If she could scoop up some dirt on the man, their next encounter might be more equal. Hell, she might even get the upper hand. She did love having power on her side.

"Doesn't it get tiresome to live in two realms? I mean, the constant travelling seems like so much effort when you consider the fact that you're doing it to protect a species as ungrateful as us humans. Midgardians, right?"

"You are well informed," Thor appraised her. She didn't know what he was referring to, so she made a qualified guess.

"I do research. It's all I have to go by. I don't want Loki to", _screw me over,_ "trick me."

Thor's expression turned somber, almost regretful, and Aileen knew very well that this was the one risk that the topic of Loki never failed to pose. It was public knowledge that Thor and Loki were brothers gone bad.

"Jotunheim," she said. Upon noticing Thor's befuddled expression, she figured she should probably ask with a little more finesse. Or she probably shouldn't ask at all, but that wasn't really an option.

"The myths say that, uhm… that Loki is part jötunn," she elaborated, struggling with pronouncing the name in its true language. She hoped it would appeal to Thor's nationalist streak. She really had too much spare time on her hands.

"Loki is my brother," Thor answered. He was choosing his words carefully.

"Him being jötunn doesn't really stop him from being your brother," Aileen reasoned. "Is his heritage the reason for the bad blood?"

Thor frowned and his entire face scrunched up. He yet had to take serious offense and Aileen would keep pushing until he did.

"Loki's blood is not bad."

"No, I meant in the figurative sense. You know, bad blood. As in no lost love?"

She had to scratch the idioms. Understandably, Thor had trouble with those.

"Is that why your relationship is bad?" she asked, skipping right to the facts. There was no use in being politely subtle when the man didn't get it. Thor visibly recoiled and guilt swamped Aileen.

"My brother wrongly insists that he has no family," the large man answered and the finality of his words warned Aileen that she shouldn't pry further into the matter.

"Okay," she nodded, taking her cue to back down. "Okay. So, why the tuna?"

He looked down at the can of food in his hand.

"My diet is too uniform," he said in a sheepish voice. She preferred sheepish over mournful.

"We do love our meat," Aileen smiled. She realized very quickly that Thor was citing the orders of somebody else and she took gross advantage of that fact. It would put her back in Thor's good graces. As Thor returned her smile with a lopsided one of his own, Aileen's stomachache saw it fit to intensify to a point where it must have showed on her face.

"You appear unwell. Is something the matter?"

* * *

Later, upon awakening to a medical team and with several SHIELD agents by her side, Aileen was told that her skin had burned with a fever rivaling the metabolism of Bruce on a green day. It made little sense, however, since she had felt nothing but depressingly cold when her body had collapsed into Thor's chest, overcome with one seriously wicked rollercoaster ride of a seizure.

She had a theory. The God of Mischief, wherever he now was, was tapping into the magic he had stored inside her. The incident had to be a consequence of Loki's experimentation. Instead of completely removing the magic like he had claimed back in the warehouse, he had turned her into a stuffed turkey with those energy injections of his. Clearly her body was wasn't fit for it. He had probably tried to extract that energy in order to use it for whatever nefarious purposes he had scheduled for the day. Unfortunately, dramatic exaggeration aside, she couldn't present this theory to Fury and SHIELD without admitting to the shady business that she was doing with Loki. The best she could do was to deny Fury access to her body and Loki's secret storage of magic. And then hope that Loki had a real good explanation to offer, once he decided to show up and take responsibility.

"I want to go to a real hospital," she insisted for the fifth time since gaining consciousness.

Fury nodded his understanding. "Our doctors are all qualified to make viable diagnostics-"

"I want treatment. Not diagnostics. You have no equipment here to treat me. "

Over by the corner of the room, Steve was fidgeting to make his own input. Natasha stood beside him and appeared completely calm.

"The diagnostics all say that you're back in working order."

"So, what, I magically happened to heal myself?" Aileen asked and quickly moved on when she realized that the scenario was in fact quite likely. "I want professional treatment by people who work to pay their bills and not because they have a multitude of secret agendas and ulterior motives to achieve. Your diagnostics aren't worth shit, and we all know it."

She hadn't meant to yell. However, given that she had just been told that her abdominal cavity had frozen over – complete with ice caps and tiny ice spikes– Aileen didn't care much about politeness. She could have been impaled from the inside out, and Fury was citing diagnostics? Forget about keeping her business with Loki a secret. She truly did want professional treatment. It was just a bonus that treatment at the hospital would put her out of Fury's hands. And it would keep her secret a secret.

"Your body was working off the ice by raising its temperature, hence your feverish condition," Natasha said. "That's not magic. That's science."

"All the more reason to why I should be in a hospital and not here."

"Your body's reaction and its attack on the foreign material can be explained scientifically. The existence of foreign material itself certainly cannot," Fury concluded. "On that note, I believe we can safely assume that this incident is of magical origins, and that it is linked directly to Loki's unfortunate spell casting. We cannot send you off to a hospital in the public sector with ice inside your stomach. This is not a matter for the government."

"Thor is trying to establish contact with Loki," Natasha said. "Preferably, Loki should check you over, but that might not be possible if Thor can't convince him to return from wherever he's off to."

"Asgardian Gods. Special offer. Get two for one," Aileen said and rubbed her brow wearily.

They had hooked her up to various odd machines in a room on the 21st floor, but they could just as well have put her in a cell. It didn't look like she was moving any time soon. And she had to. She wanted to corner Loki alone. And right at this minute, she could feel his imminent arrival the same way that she had felt it back in Tony's kitchen four days ago. It was disconcerting, but as long as it was useful, she would keep her mouth shut about it. She only hoped that Loki appreciated her thoughtfulness enough to take her lead and meet up with her in the less than optimal surroundings of the ladies room. He certainly was effeminate enough to pull it off.

"I need to go to the bathroom," she announced. "Do I need a babysitter for that as well, or can I go like the big girl I am?"

Steve sent her a disapproving look. She would never learn to like Steve for anything else than his chivalrousness and loyalty.

"I daresay that putting Miss Palmer under Stark's supervision has had some rather unpleasant side effects," the Captain commented wryly. It was the best comment he had made yet.

"You can go," Fury bequeathed Aileen's request. "Be quick about it."

It felt like a race against time. As Aileen sprinted down the various corridors that led to the bathrooms, she could feel Loki's presence hovering nearby, ready to descend whenever he pleased. She wanted to reach the privacy of the bathrooms before that happened. Luckily, she did so.

"I suppose that all other settings were occupied save for this haven of filth," Loki noted distastefully when he appeared next to her where she was splashing warm water onto her face. The cold tap had seemed too scary to touch.

"Sorry," Aileen answered unapologetically. "You were waiting for me?"

"I do not intend to make my presence known to SHIELD," he said and inadvertently admitted that he had wanted to catch her alone. Just like she had wanted to catch him alone. The feeling was completely mutual. Given the threat to her health, Aileen could do without the political nonsense that always seemed to ensue whenever Loki approached SHIELD of his own free will. Somehow they saw that as a green light to try recruiting him. It sickened her for reasons beyond her understanding. When he was alone, he was less hostile.

"Fancy telling me what really happened?" she asked.

"I made a false calculation. I have rectified it."

"Turning me into an ice cube from the inside out was a 'false calculation'? Will you be making more of these false calculations?"

Loki glowered and his lips curled into a sneer. "I am experiencing complexities."

For some reason, this was the point in the conversation where Aileen took note of what she was wearing and how horrid she had to look in her favorite pair of pink sweatpants and a borrowed shirt that had to be Steve's. The size of it surely suggested that it belonged to the Captain. Running a quick hand through her hair, Aileen cleared her throat and pushed aside any feelings of inferiority. Loki was styled as impeccably as ever, and Aileen told herself that she wasn't vain enough to regret that she herself looked like a hungover Iron Man. Realizing pretty quickly that this tactic didn't work – she would always feel irrationally ugly next to Loki – she decided to make up for her bout of sudden insecurity by adopting the voice of a female Fury.

"Why the ice?"

Loki smiled and she could almost imagine him tut-tutting her if such an action hadn't been below his standard.

"Do not ask questions to which you already know the answer."

Right then, she decided to drop the bomb. And she made modifications where she saw it fit. Anything to piss Loki off. She was angry and she wanted to piss him off. She was as self-destructive as the guy next door, and Loki's elevated presence did nothing to quell that destructiveness.

"I talked to Thor," she said and wiped tiny pools of water off the edge of the sink. "He told me that your jötunn heritage is the primary reason behind this hissy fit of yours. Really? Starting an inter-dimensional war because your daddy neglected to tell you that you were a bastard child? It seems rather excessive. Are you sure that-"

He grabbed her hand and deftly broke two of her fingers. The pain was absolutely excruciating.

"If you breathe it hurts less," Loki instructed impassively. It took her three tries before she managed to draw in a successful breath. Spots continued to flash before her eyes, but she could speak without resorting to primal sounds.

"Heal it," she said as she cradled her hand. "Otherwise, Fury will know."

Loki raised a brow, but didn't object to her logic. Perhaps he was surprised that she hadn't jumped him like a madwoman fixated on revenge. While she hadn't deserved to have her bones broken, she certainly hadn't deserved praise either. She had been in the wrong, and she knew it. Lesson learned.

"You know when to hold your tongue, yet you purposely make the decision not to," Loki said.

"You get what you give. And self-perseverance isn't my strongest trait."

He held her gaze as steadily as one would hold an infant for the fear of dropping it. Then he stepped up close and motioned for her to hold out her hand. Hesitantly and a little peeved by his nearness, Aileen offered him her hand. He had just crushed her bones to dust. Vaguely, she wondered if Fury had sent out a search party yet. She had been gone for quite some time by now. They would know where to look. They wouldn't take long to locate her. The rush of Loki's magic felt like a dip into a cool lake. Perhaps it was too soon right after the incident, because the minute that she was encompassed in the cold rush, Aileen recoiled. And she did it hard. So hard that she lost her footing and knocked her head against the hand towel dispenser.

She had expected Loki to watch her go down. Surprisingly, he didn't. Surprisingly he caught her flailing arm and pulled her back in place. It wasn't a gentle pull. It nearly ripped her shoulder out of its socket. Nevertheless, it served its purpose well. If not a little too well, judging by how her arm felt like boiled spaghetti afterwards.

"Humans and their frailty," Loki complained almost casually. "Control your emotive state and it will serve us both better."

"I just survived having my innards frozen over, so don't talk about frailty."

"You survived because you had my magic inside you," Loki snipped.

"Your magic did this," Aileen protested.

"And my magic reversed it when I told it to. Like I said, I rectified the miscalculation."

"At least you admit to fucking me up," Aileen murmured, rubbing her sore arm. Loki's face grew oddly expressionless.

As if to illustrate the tension within the room, a bird picked that moment to fly headfirst into one of the windows, and the entire scene was so awkward that Aileen nearly laughed. She did laugh. And apparently Loki didn't appreciate that decision of hers. With a scornful look on his otherwise gorgeously crafted face, he vanished on the spot. Aileen kept laughing for a good five minutes before she realized that he wasn't coming back to heal her hand.

Later, when she returned to her temporary sickbed, she cooked up some half-assed lie about how she had tripped inside the bathroom and fallen on top of her hand, consequently breaking both her middle and index finger. Being veterans of inflicting and receiving pain, nobody within the room believed her, but they kindly kept the fact to themselves. She had to have looked real bad for them all to do so.

* * *

She met Jane a week later. The truce between Loki and SHIELD was still in place despite the fact that Loki had only showed one out the seven times that they should have worked on reversing the spell. And that one time had been awkward as hell. Granted, there was nothing to be reversed, but nevertheless they still had to cater to Fury's belief that there was. Aileen wondered how much data Loki needed before he called quits on his vessel experiment. If he showed up for only ten percent of the time that he ought to, it would be a slow process indeed. She didn't know if she liked that or found it particularly horrifying.

"So, you're with Thor?" Aileen asked Jane. They were seated in one of the lounges of the headquarters together with Jane's former assistant Darcy. Aileen had grown comfortable enough to no longer care that she was basically squatting in the Avengers headquarters. She was quite literally living in Tony's shadow, and she had grown to accept it for the time being. She had nothing else to be doing, anyway. At the moment, the job market was far too competitive for her to join, even if the possibility had been there. Her dad would scream bloody murder at her if she ever said so out loud, but that didn't stop her from thinking it. She should call her dad soon.

"Yes," Jane agreed in a manner that could only be described as cutely awkward. Aileen hated herself for even thinking such a cheesy phrase.

"He had memory loss when he first came here," she said as though she wanted to stress the fact that she didn't fall for his royal title. Aileen could understand that.

"Jane hit him with our car," Darcy added.

"I couldn't see him," Jane explained to Aileen. "He was standing in the middle of-"

"She hit him a second time at the hospital's parking lot."

Both Aileen and Darcy looked expectantly at Jane.

"I don't have an excuse for that," the woman said and Aileen's respect for the scientist escalated from nonexistent to vague.

"Thor's a hottie," Darcy concluded, her eyes zeroing in on Aileen. "I hear you're hooked up with his brother."

Jane's horrified gasp grated on Aileen's ears and she coughed to distract herself from it. The woman was both nice and kind, but Aileen had never worked well with nice and kind. She was the bitchy and sadistic type herself, though she typically managed to hide it with her asocial nature.

"Loki?" Jane questioned, sounding rather indecisive about her thoughts on the matter.

Aileen turned her attention back to Darcy, and she knew that her tone was disapproving when she spoke next. "Is this common knowledge?"

"A girl knows her way," Darcy said unconcernedly.

"Are you with Loki?" Jane asked a second time and Aileen figured she had better give an answer before the woman jumped to conclusions and went running to Thor. It would be no good if SHIELD thought that she and Loki were bumping uglies. That would set a stopper to all plans.

"Not in the sense you think. And this is getting too gossipy for me. I'd better go check on Tony and see if he's done playing around with his toys."

Ten minutes later, she found Tony up on the deck.

"How did you get up here?" the engineer asked when she came within speaking distance. He was working on a monstrosity of a machine, and it actually looked as though the gigantic thing was working against Tony, occasionally whipping him with loose cables and the like.

"Security system let me through. Like last time," Aileen replied and approached cautiously. "Is Jarvis hooked up to this building?"

"No," Tony responded and sounded offended by the mere suggestion.

"Odd. Must be a glitch, then. Can we go home soon?"

Tony banged his oversized screwdriver against the chunk of metal that he was commandeering and it went immobile. He then climbed down from the piece of machinery. When his feet were on the ground, he would have answered if the emergence of Loki hadn't stopped him from doing so.

"Stark," Loki greeted Tony. "I am in need of assistance."

"Ah, my favorite Asgardian God. To what do we owe the honor?" Tony asked, gesturing to Aileen and stressing the fact that there was a third party present. Loki shot her a brief look but showed no other signs of concern.

"It is of no matter," he informed Tony who immediately turned suspicious eyes onto Aileen.

"Well, you know the deal, princess," he said to Loki. "Give me something in return, and I'll gladly cater to your every need. Except for the perverse ones. I promised to save the kinky stuff for Pepper, you see. She's really-"

"Cease your incessant blabbering, please," Loki said and conjured a piece of paper out of thin air. He then handed it to Tony. "Acquire these items and I will pay you for your services the usual way."

That sounded dirty in so many ways and Aileen was decidedly intrigued. She wasn't even miffed that Loki hadn't truly acknowledged her presence yet. Okay, she still was a little miffed about that, but this revelation surely made up for it. Maybe this was the project he was working on that interfered with their sessions. Could he even work on a project when he was under the restrictions of a truce?

"I'm sorry."

It took a couple of seconds for her to realize that she was the one who had spoken. Tony was looking at her as though she had revealed that she was transgendered. Loki was studying her with obvious interest. He knew the apology was meant for him.

"And what are we apologizing for?" Tony asked. Aileen really should have saved this for some other time.

"You know, it's not-"

"I will return in a week's time," Loki told Tony. "Have the items ready by then."

He waited for Tony's acquiescence and then disappeared as randomly as he had appeared.

"You do deals with Loki. Outside of SHIELD," Aileen concluded after a long pause of contemplative silence.

"And I'm guessing that you do, too," Tony said in an uncharacteristically grim voice.

"The real question is why he wanted us to know," Aileen pointed out, eager to somehow escape the interrogation she suspected was about to come. If Tony intended to grill her, she most certainly would grill him as well. And she had a feeling he knew that already. She might be a civilian and he might be part of the Avengers squad, but she refused to be treated any differently just because she didn't have any admirable superpowers.

Tony cleared his throat. "So, we're agreeing on pretending that this never happened, right?"

"Yes," Aileen answered, not missing a beat.

"Good. I think I'm done here. Need to go fetch your purse before we leave?"

"My purse? Really?"

"Hey, you just pantsed me back there. Don't expect my material to be good."

"For how long?" she humored the older man.

"The next ten minutes, probably."

"You're a goof."

* * *

**Edited March 19, 2013 **


	6. Chapter Five

**Guinea Pig  
**By Frozzy

* * *

**Chapter Five**

She was halfway through her bottle of cheap vodka when she realized that she was inarguably drunk, and that her last ten Google searches had included either the word 'mythical' or the even more unsubtle 'Norse'. Given the late hour and her level of intoxication, this was basically the equivalent to drunk dialing a person who had no phone. To her knowledge, Loki had no phone. So, in conclusion, she was drunk dialing Loki Laufeyson, and she did not like it one bit.

The previous morning, Aileen had woken to a severe, albeit imaginary, case of frostbite. It had taken all of her effort to stay silent as she had limped across the floor and thrown herself into the hot shower. Jarvis had made a brief comment later that morning concerning the water bill, but otherwise the AI had given no hint so far that he intended to tell on her or not.

She tried to flex her bandaged fingers as if to remind herself that one mustn't lie. Since the incident in the bathroom at the Avengers HQ, Fury had now put her in lockdown until her hand was sufficiently healed. Lockdown meant no Loki and no Avengers business. She had appreciated the gesture at the time. She had thought that she needed the space.

Slamming the screen of her laptop shut with more force than what was strictly necessary, Aileen unfolded her legs and stood up from the couch. The floor swayed beneath her feet, but stayed mostly vertical. She refrained from making any detours, however, and headed straight for her room and the cottony embrace of her most beloved bed.

There was just one problem, she realized.

Loki was occupying that bed and quite effectively put a halt to her plans.

With one leg flexibly crossed over the other, he sat studying her room as though he was memorizing every possible murder instrument for future reference. The situation would have had her running for the hills if it hadn't been for the fact that Loki was clad in casual wear. He wouldn't have come to slaughter her while dressed in the Asgardian version of pants and a tee. He was far too theatrical and wouldn't slack off like that. On another note, the Asgardian version of pants and a tee was a whole lot more fashionable than the human one. Loki looked positively delectable. And he was sitting on her bed.

"Leave."

Loki ignored her blunt dismissal with a beguiling smile.

"I come bearing a proposal of sorts, but I see that the current circumstances might not be in my favor. What is the occasion?"

"I don't care how pretty a picture you make or whatever business arrangements you're here to promote," Aileen said. "I still don't accept house calls after 9 pm."

She was surprisingly eloquent considering the fair amount of alcohol that she had consumed, and she counted that a small victory in the face of Loki's repetitive grander ones.

"I had not envisioned a particular warm welcome. For obvious reasons," the God said. "But surely the amount of disrespect with which you treat me is not quite as warranted as you make it out to be."

The jab was subtle, but it was there. Aileen wondered if Jarvis had alerted Tony of Loki's presence. Was Tony at home or out with Pepper?

"I let you break my fingers," she said. "And I apologized. Like an idiot. In front of Tony."

"There was an obvious lack of tact, but you did realize your error and amended it," Loki agreed. His mood swings were not as unpredictable as they seemed. For starters, his civility was directly linked to his constant pursuit of objectives. If he played nice, you had something that he needed. Not wanted, but needed. You had to distinguish between the two. When Loki wanted something, he took it. When he needed something, it meant that he had to work for it.

"I intend to reclaim my bed now."

"You do not wish to learn of the deals I conduct with Stark?" Loki baited her, referring to their last encounter. His voice was spun like the purest of gold and felt like the finest Egyptian silk.

"No."

He had expected her answer. His unflinching smile told her that much. "Why not?"

"Because you would never offer such information for free. And m'sure I'm better off not knowing."

That was one of the reason as to why she hadn't grilled Tony about it. She truly didn't want to know. Plopping down on her bed, she rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in her pillow. It was a stupid move, offering Loki her back, but she had concluded that Loki wasn't there to kill her. She could turn her back on him if she wanted to. Besides, her head would take care of her death in the morning when her body would be flushing out the toxins that she had poured into it.

"Tell me about the pretty picture I make."

Aileen turned her head to the side and popped an eye open.

"Please. Don't ruin your reputation as a master manipulator for my sake."

"Yes," Loki said with a quiet laugh that had Aileen shut her eyes tighter. "I suppose you're right. That tactic is rather unrefined for a person of my skill."

"Your blood is interfering," Aileen said suddenly. "Other blood. Jot'heim. That's the complexities you talked about. When I get ice in my stomach."

The bed shifted. Loki remained silent.

"It would seem that the human body has greater difficulty adapting to that part of my genetics," he answered.

"Is this a bonding moment?" Aileen slurred. She was ready to be pulled under by sleep. "M'think it's a bonding moment."

"Your penchant for sarcasm has matured greatly in the continued presence of Stark."

"You're not gettin' any secret SHIELD intel just because I'm sloshed. So no reason to hang 'round. I know no secret intel, anyway," Aileen spoke into the pillow, possibly also drooling a little. It was her bed. He could leave if he found her disgusting. She was not an attractive drunk.

"I am in no hurry," Loki replied in a bored voice, and he was probably speaking the truth.

"Jarvis?"

_Yes, miss? _

"Fetch Tony, please?"

_I have already alerted him of Mr. Laufeyson's presence, _the automated voice assured her, somehow reading in between the lines and that was just disturbing. _I will pass on your request to Mr. Stark. He should be up in a minute._

With those words of reassurance, Aileen proceeded to doze off. She purposely ignored Loki's huff of annoyance and how the bed shifted when he took off.

* * *

Two days later, Fury called her in for a private consultation.

"I had a talk with Loki."

He sounded almost resigned when he spoke.

"He believes there is no need to resume your sessions. If nothing unfortunate has happened since we put the sessions on hold, it would indicate that the spell is reversed at this point."

Aileen didn't believe for one second that Loki was finished. If he was, he wouldn't have sought her out two days ago.

"What about the truce? That ended with the task of curing me, right? It's open warfare now?"

"As I'm sure you've come to experience by now, nothing is ever that straightforward with Loki. As for now, things appear to remain under control."

Tony had said something to her once, Aileen remembered. That Loki was a black hole. He was the bad guy with the upper hand. That left her to wonder exactly why he hadn't taken advantage of that and fully eroded humankind like he continuously proclaimed was his ultimate goal.

The answer hit her much like a slap to the face. Loki had nowhere else to go. There were other dimensions and universes, for certain, but there were also other monsters. Bigger and scarier ones. The world had seen that when the Chitauri had descended on New York City, ultimately sealing the deal that the Avengers could stay as long as they liked – and behave as illegally as they wanted – if only they agreed to keep the city safe. It wasn't that far a stretch to suggest that Loki used Earth as his home base while he planned the demise of other worlds. He would need to be on relatively good terms with Fury and SHIELD if Earth was his home base. What if Tony was unknowingly assisting Loki in killing off alien species? What if she herself was assisting Loki in doing so by being his magical vessel of backup energy? And would it really be so bad if it kept Earth safe?

"So, to clear this up… No more supervision? I can get my own place and return to the world of the commoners?"

"Yes. Although, I would suggest that you allow us to monitor you for an extended period of time, since Loki knows how to twist his words in whatever direction he pleases," Fury said.

"You mean installing surveillance crap in my home? Future home."

"SHIELD will pay your rent and other unforeseen costs," he offered in return, obviously having expected her reaction. "The financial arrangement will of course cease once you're put off surveillance."

She was unemployed. She could deal with a little Big Brother if it took the economic pressure off her shoulders. Whoever had said that you couldn't buy happiness was deadly wrong. Or perhaps her moral code left something to be desired.

"You're not gonna erase my memory?" she asked. "Secret organization and all?"

Fury's unimpressed stare was surprisingly satisfying.

* * *

Later that day, she had a nervous breakdown that had her bawling her eyes out in front of an uncomfortable Captain America and a befuddled Thor. It was the same day that Tony had decided to fuck up and cheat on Pepper, which meant that Jarvis had resorted to alerting the Avengers HQ of Aileen's less than preferable condition. Steve took her to the hospital and Tony showed up to drive her back home.

"I have a second house in Malibu. Beautiful this time of the year."

"I can handle a bit of surveillance. I'm not moving to Malibu."

Thankfully, Tony didn't point out that she had just had a mental breakdown.

"Who says you're invited? Don't presume stuff. It's bad for you."

"Jarvis?"

_Yes, miss? _

"Do you have an award-winning real estate agent on speed dial?"

There was no immediate answer and Aileen realized that the AI was actually checking up on her request.

_Would you like me to initiate a search?_

"No. Never mind."

* * *

It was now two weeks since her last visit to the headquarters, and the housing market was being a bigger bitch than Tony. And that was a lot of bitchiness when you considered the fact that Tony was currently being subjected to Pepper's silent treatment. In all honesty, Fury probably ought to provide Aileen with her new home, but since she no longer had reason to accompany Tony to the tower, she couldn't very well alert the SHIELD director of his negligence.

"On second thought," she said to the AI. "Would it be too much of a bother?"

Whatever Jarvis had intended to say was drowned out by the positively thunderous noise of Loki's unannounced arrival. In fact, the room thrummed with enough energy that Aileen lost her sense of balance and toppled right off her chair. She nearly cracked her head open on the floor. The lights had stopped flickering when Aileen eventually regained her composure, but the room continued to shudder.

"What the hell-"

"Spare me your sentiments," Loki said as he got to his feet in a surprisingly inelegant manner. Aileen soon realized why.

"Your arm is missing."

Technically, it was half of his arm, but the bloody remains of his left bicep just couldn't qualify as 'arm'.

"How very observant," he sneered and crossed the room. When he grabbed her and pulled her up on her feet, she was seconds away from puking.

"You're immortal. Thor never gets hurt."

"Immortality doesn't equal indestructibility. And my brother has the luxury to pick his battles whereas I do not."

"Then what the hell does immortal mean?"

"I would not know," Loki said, his voice strained. "Your race invented the concept."

"I'm still gonna puke."

"You will not. Sit."

She sat down because her knees would have given out otherwise. The stench of blood and burnt flesh was nauseating. She wasn't particular squeamish, but this was far worse than any horror movie she could think of. And movies were pretty much the only reference point available to her, since she was neither a war veteran, nor a surgeon.

"I'm gonna pass out now," she warned the God when her vision grew blurry around the edges.

"You will wait until I have drawn use of you."

"Use of-"

Loki touched her forehead with two fingers and she was plunged into hypothermic shock. Or at least that was what it felt like. She felt like she had been dumped in a container of water from the Arctic Ocean. The pain was indescribable, far worse than any of the previous painful situations that Loki had exposed her to, and if it hadn't been so damned hard to breathe, she would have cursed Loki six ways to Sunday. The pain dragged on like a November hailstorm, and Aileen was only vaguely aware of the moment when her body crumbled and her knees hit the floor with a burning sensation that was almost welcome amidst the coldness in her lungs. Loki followed her to ground, providing a nearness that was rather uncharacteristic.

It wasn't stopping.

When she fell forward and pressed her forehead into Loki's shoulder, it still didn't stop.

"Not stopping," she said and grappled weakly at Loki's arm. "Stop it."

"Soon."

Soon was a lie. After what felt like hours, the pain stopped. Aileen felt safe in her skin and she kicked her way out of Loki's hold.

"What the fuck!" she burst angrily. "What the fuck, Loki! What the hell are you trying to do– _no_, back the fuck off!"

"I am not trying to grab you, woman. I am merely illustrating-"

"Fuck off!"

With a glower and an exasperated sigh, Loki did as she asked. And precisely ten minutes after Loki's departure, Aileen realized that he really hadn't tried to grab her. He had tried to show her his healed arm, the skin a little too pink and a little too new to match the rest of his body.

_Do you acquire medical assistance?_

"No, Jarvis," she replied. "I need a painkiller. Do you have any energy readings on what just happened?"

_Restricted information. Available to Mr Stark only. Do you wish to request for admittance? _

She rubbed her throbbing scalp and pointedly ignored the last question.

* * *

"I found you a place."

"No. Tony, no."

"It's right downtown, next to the subway and with a Thai restaurant around the corner. You have to have a Thai restaurant around the corner."

"I dunno. I'd go for Indian," Clint said.

"What are you still doing here, Barton?" Tony asked and shot a pencil at the other man. The archer grabbed it and promptly broke it into two.

"Stark stationary," Tony said snobbishly.

"You should stop by the headquarters," Clint said to Aileen as he started for the exit. "Captain is worrying his ass off."

"Shame. He's got a nice one," Aileen answered distractedly as she zapped through the many channels of Tony's TV.

"Why don't you ever compliment me?" Tony asked.

"Because Steve doesn't creep into my room at night and drool over me in my sleep."

"Don't flatter yourself, darling. I'm far too busy for that. I use the cameras that Jarvis installed."

There was a long pause in which Clint took his leave, mumbling something about a third wheel.

"Does Jarvis keep a log of all visits to the house?" Aileen asked Tony a couple of minutes after Clint's departure.

"He keeps a record and alerts me of patterns and oddities," Tony replied. "Oh yeah. I know about your little romance with a certain someone."

"I know about your off-the-record business deals with SHIELD's number one criminal."

"Touché."

Thank God he had said romance and not hidden agenda.

* * *

A week later, her father suffered a mild heart attack. Needless to say, that postponed her apartment hunting and it also alerted her of the fact that she couldn't keep hiding in Tony Stark's grandiose penthouse. She couldn't keep stalling life no matter how preferable it might be. She had to find both a place to live and a job with a steady income. And of course this would also be the day that Loki decided to pay her the first visit since their fall-out. She had dubbed it that after much contemplation. There simply wasn't a better word for it, despite the fact that it implied an intimacy that was wholly absent from their relationship.

"You blackmailed me," she said when he told her that she shouldn't have agreed to the deal if she wasn't comfortable with the consequences.

"Pettiness doesn't become a lady," Loki commented and picked up her blazer where she had dropped it to the floor earlier that day. "You put the blame on others instead of taking it yourself. You could have altered the bargain. I find great pleasure in negotiation, as you must know."

"Anything I tried to alter, you would have turned against me somehow," she said and snatched the blazer from his hands. She was angry and tired from having spent the day at the hospital with her father. She could practically feel how the roots of her hair stood on edge, bristling up in an attempt to visualize that very same anger. Turning her back on Loki, she pulled her hair out of its ponytail and proceeded to rub her sore scalp. Behind her, Loki remained suspiciously silent.

"I suppose an apology would suffice," he said eventually.

She froze with her hands still buried in her hair. "I'm not apologizing."

"You misunderstand me."

Her limbs unfroze and she lowered her arms to her sides.

"Are you apologizing?" she asked.

"It was a pressing situation on my part," he explained and sounded entirely unapologetic as he studied the walls of the room. "I did not take much else into account."

"You mean that you didn't take my well-being into account," she said. "Like how it hurt like a bitch to have you practically maul my body."

"I should not have to consider you," Loki said and rounded on her. Something monumental was happening, but Aileen couldn't wrap her head properly around it.

"Jarvis keeps a record of your visits," she announced. Loki hummed in reply. His shoulders were still tense, but the wild look had deserted his eyes. Aileen considered that a right move on her part.

"And am I right to assume that Stark spends his time studying those recordings with the hope of finding anything remotely salacious?"

"Probably," Aileen said and shot a look towards the bathroom. Loki caught the movement.

"By all means, do not let me disrupt your evening routine," he purred and she shot him a look that would have gotten her killed weeks ago. Now Loki looked pleased. In hindsight, this was probably the moment that best illustrated the fundamental change in their relationship. They might not share any sort of intimacy, but they shared a great deal of tolerance for each other. Aileen liked that. It meant she was less likely to get killed. She really liked that.

"Is your arm alright?" Aileen asked. Loki raised a brow, stating the obvious.

"Who were you fighting?" Aileen rephrased her question. "You said that Thor had the luxury to pick his battles. Who were you fighting that you couldn't flee from if they were that powerful?"

"I do not flee."

Loki sounded mildly disgusted by the thought, and Aileen wondered if she had just offended him.

"I thought your brother was the warrior," she said. At this, Loki let out a soundless chuckle and ran a lazy hand across the footboard of her bed. He walked towards her with measured steps. He had seen straight through her. She would have been alarmed if he hadn't, to be honest.

"You can fight battles with more than physical strength," he said. She continued to watch him as he came to a halt in front of her. In a sudden bout of nervousness, Aileen resorted to provocation. Provocation was good for awkward silences.

"Physical strength beat you up real good. With you lacking an entire arm and all. What are words and intellect compared to that?"

His head dropped a few inches, almost as though he was letting her in on a secret. He didn't have to. She was intrigued already. She wouldn't bait him like this if she wasn't.

"I could make you beg for your life without touching a single hair on your head. Already now, you feel it."

He was right. But she was feeling something else, too.

"I'd rather beg for something else."

She immediately regretted saying the words out loud. She actually choked on her own breath as if the words had hurt her throat. Steeping backwards, she knocked her hip into the edge of the footboard, and the impact of the rounded wood against her hipbone went almost unnoticed in her panicked state.

"That," Loki said silkily and caught her flailing attention, "is not yet an option."

Aileen faltered and rubbed the sore spot on her hip. "Yet?"

"I do not to mix business with pleasure," the God explained with a somewhat contemplative look in her direction. In that moment, he was startlingly human. Both in terms of speech and in terms of policies. He felt approachable. Despite his almost clinical attitude.

"In that case, you should leave," Aileen replied with a look towards the windows where rain was hammering against the glass. "This is clearly a social call and not a business call. And you don't mix pleasure with business."

She was acting like a bitch, but she had just been rejected, so it really was acceptable behavior on her part. She hadn't really meant to proposition him, but done was done. Now it was time for damage control.

"I sense reluctance in your words," Loki responded shrewdly.

"No shit," she replied and glowered at the man.

"Pouting is reserved for children."

"You kill children."

"And that denies me the right to speak of them?"

She paused. "You kill children?"

He smiled in response and she told herself that she'd rather not know.

"If I'm going to remain your magic-infused pet, this blackmail thing isn't going to be enough. You've nearly gotten me killed twice. I want something in return for doing this, and not just your threats to kill me. Empty threats, at that. I could just tell Fury about our deal. You know I can."

She had learned that she could be valuable to Loki. She had helped heal his arm in record time. She felt secure enough to make demands now.

"I promise nothing that I do not give."

"So promise me more," she insisted.

"I was of the impression that I already have."

It took her embarrassingly long to understand what he was hinting at. "Sexual favors? Really? As if I couldn't get that from others?"

"Careful, Miss Palmer. I might take offense."

"Aileen. My name's Aileen. You let me address you by your name. You should return the favor."

He looked at her for a long moment. So long that she started to doubt her newly found boldness.

"I promise nothing that I do not give," he repeated and took his leave shortly after.

* * *

**Edited March 19, 2013 **


	7. Chapter Six

**Guinea Pig  
**By Frozzy

* * *

**Chapter Six**

She found an apartment three days after her father's heart attack and Loki's apology. The apartment lay on East 23rd street. It was mediocre. It wasn't better than her previous one and the sink had a leak that smelled like sewer. But it was a start, and Aileen wasn't very high-maintenance. She could work with this. She had worked with less while she had been in college. The apartment had a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom and living room combined. She was just happy that the kitchen and bathroom were separate. She preferred not to shit where she slept. One of the windows got stuck if you opened it too far, and the apartment was on the tenth floor while the elevator was partly out of order and stopped at the eighth. Other than that, the place was as good as any other downtown Manhattan apartment. Tony took her shopping for furniture. Apparently he was still in the mindset of being her caretaker, although now she was just starting to feel like a charity case. With Tony in charge of the furniture, he refused to let her pay. She hit him and told him to take a hike, but somehow he still managed to manipulate her into letting him buy the furniture. And Tony's taste really didn't match the overall crappy and cheap feel of the apartment. But Aileen got her furniture and she didn't have to energy to complain about how. Besides it looked good. And the Avengers had killed her last apartment. Tony actually owed her this.

"If you're doing this because you're afraid I'll tattle to Fury about your secret deals with Loki, you can stop now. Because I won't," Aileen said when they had assembled the couch. Surprisingly, Tony had been very hands on with the project. She knew he loved his machinery, but she hadn't expected that to extend to furniture as well.

"I can't want to spend time with you?"

"You don't know me."

"That would be why I'm here. Quality time is important for a blossoming friendship."

"Oh God, shut up," Aileen said and pushed her way through empty moving boxes. Tony followed and they made their way into the kitchen. "Really. You're done babysitting me. This was officially the last favor you will ever do me. Is that clear, Tony?"

"Why do I get the feeling you don't want me here?"

"I need to restart my life. And my life will not include Tony Stark, superheroes in spandex or SHIELD. It will include job hunting, paying my bills and eating crap food out of plastic containers. I need a microwave. Why didn't I get that? Why didn't you remember that?"

"Sorry," Tony said and popped a beer open. "I only heard how much you love to have me around."

"I really mean this," Aileen said and grabbed the neck of the beer bottle to stress the importance of her words. "I can't have you around here. I need some sort of closure. For a month or two. After that, I should have settled down and you can stop by whenever you want. But I need to be alone for a while. You need to give me that."

She knew that Tony would understand the need for solitude.

"You'll be monitored by SHIELD," Tony said and juggled the beer bottle out of her grasp.

"That's different," she said. "They're not physically here."

"So I can install cameras, too?"

"No. Why are you this persistent?"

"I'm a creature of habit. Your charismatic persona has grown on me and I'd loathe seeing it disappear."

Aileen rolled her eyes and opened the fridge to grab a juice for herself. She was no stranger to alcohol, but it was a little too early for her to drink. Tony obviously didn't have that same restriction. Or moral issue.

"Wanna try that again?" she asked.

"Helping you gives me an excuse not to work on Fury's next big thing," he said and took a swig of the beer.

"I'll buy that one," Aileen said. "What does he want you to do?"

"Confidential. Can't say. Is that your boyfriend?"

Tony was pointing to a picture that lay on top of one of the few unpacked moving boxes. Aileen honestly thought she had thrown out that particular picture, but it must have snuck in together with various other Polaroids. She didn't have a lot of stuff left from her old apartment, but most of it was tucked into that one box. She hadn't unpacked it because Tony was there. It seemed a bit too private, and he wasn't part of her life before the incident. Her former place really had been disintegrated to rubble. Just like Fury had claimed those couple of weeks ago. Aileen had stopped by to check it out as soon as SHIELD had unleashed her. Although, that wasn't to say that SHIELD itself couldn't have totaled the apartment complex in honor of Fury's lie. Aileen honestly didn't remember that the battle had been that intense. She didn't remember a falling building. She wouldn't even categorize it as a battle. Perhaps it had happened gradually, and the building had fallen apart after she had been brought to the Avengers headquarters. She doubted it. But she also didn't want to think that SHIELD had ruined an entire building and the lives of the people living in it just to cover up for Fury's lie. Why would he even lie? She had various reasons, but they were all a little farfetched. The building probably just had collapsed after she had left the scene together with Tony and Steve.

"You don't think my boyfriend would have stalked me down during my SHIELD imprisonment?" Aileen asked Tony and grabbed the picture. The picture was, in fact, a picture of her ex-boyfriend. But Tony didn't need to know that. Her nostalgia was her own. Especially since she had been dumped only weeks prior to the Loki incident. She hadn't had much time to cope. She had sort of focused on staying alive. Now that the Avengers business was almost finished, she suspected that she would embark on a week of relationship mourning. Or maybe not. The picture of Jasper didn't evoke any feelings except for confusion. Not even a little sadness or regret. And the confusion was because she had just been reinserted back into real life. Not because she wanted him back. She really didn't. Maybe she wouldn't enter a mourning period. Maybe she was just that much of an ice cold bitch.

"Your family didn't stalk you down while you were at the tower," Tony said.

"I don't talk much to my family. You have to talk to a boyfriend. No blood ties keep him from leaving you."

"Are you implying something?"

"I'm implying that you should take your girlfriend out for dinner. If she still is your girlfriend. And that you stay out of my relationships and stick to your own. They need more work than mine."

"Ouch."

There was a knock on the door. Aileen looked from Tony to the door. She wasn't expecting company. She hadn't even registered her address yet.

"Stay out of sight," she told Tony and took the first step towards the door.

"Why?"

"Because you're Tony Stark. In my apartment. I don't want a reputation as a gold digger."

"I'm really not that old," he said but nevertheless headed for the bedroom while whistling a quiet jolly tune. Aileen almost protested that it was better having a reputation as a gold digger than letting Tony wander about unsupervised in her bedroom. Then again, she had little personal items, so there wasn't anything for him to accidentally stumble upon.

A cop stripper had knocked on her door. At least that was the initial impression Aileen got. The police officer certainly had everything going for him. And she had been around a lot of gorgeous guys lately. It seemed that hotness was a requirement to be a superhero. The man was a couple of inches taller than her. She thought she saw blue eyes beneath the brim of his hat, but she couldn't be too sure. Black stubble covered his jaw, cheekbones and chin as though it had been airbrushed on. And the bone structure of his face was like ripped out of the anatomy of the perfect specimen. Same was said for the body. The man's physique could rival Steve's and Aileen was still convinced that Steve's body ought to be slapped onto posters and handed out to every gym around the world. For its motivational factor. Or something. If she ever caught a glimpse of a stripped down Captain America, she would die a happy woman.

"Hello?" she asked. Opening the door completely seemed like too much of an invitation. She opted for leaning against the doorframe and thus blocked the view inside.

"I thought I heard voices in here," the stranger smiled charmingly.

"Is this some bad pickup line?"

"No, sorry, I just came from work and passed your door on the way to my own. I'm your neighbor. 7A."

That explained the uniform. But Aileen still hadn't asked for a welcome committee.

"Aileen Palmer," she introduced herself in an attempt to be polite.

"Yes, I know."

"Excuse me?"

"You haven't been out much since the Avengers took you under their wing, have you? It's all over the news," 7A said and Aileen really didn't care for this right now. Cop Stripper was acting starstruck. And disturbingly stalkerish. She didn't watch the news because all news channels had gone completely down the drain since the emergence of the Avengers. New York City was divided into two camps. Pro-Avengers and anti-Avengers. It was ridiculous. The media catered like sluts to those two camps, and Aileen didn't trust reporters as a consequence thereof.

"I'm sorry. I'm sort of right in the middle of something. I need to cut this short."

7A's smile faltered and Aileen suddenly recognized it for the same professional smile that doctors wore at work. He really should have changed out of his clothes before knocking on her door. And possibly have given her an actual name to go by instead of 7A or Cop Stripper.

A slow realization was bubbling in the back of her mind, but she was fighting it hard.

"Oh, of course," he said. "You can knock on my door if you need help with-"

"Thank you for offering, but I have enough superhuman manpower already."

She closed the door in his face. When she turned around, Tony was there.

"You need to get some girlfriends," Tony said.

"Why?" she asked and locked the door. "We're doing so fine."

"That's the problem. I don't make friends with the opposite gender. Which must mean you're a transvestite. Or have undergone a sex change. Which one is it?"

"That's rude. And prejudiced."

"Do you know me at all?"

"What did Cop Stripper mean?" Aileen finally asked.

"Some tabloids and stuff might have snapped a couple of pictures of you leaving the tower," Tony explained with a vague hand gesture. He had his guilty face on. "On numerous occasions. And one time, they caught you shining that particular yellow hue of yours. That caused a bit of commotion."

Her initial suspicion had been right. She had become the human pet of the Avengers overnight. That was brilliant. If only she had had a life philosophy worth sharing with the world, she would now have a platform where she could promote it. Pity that she had no such life philosophy. 'Staying alive' was a bit too cliché.

"Why don't I know of this?"

"You don't watch the news and by the time I gave you a new laptop, the story had already peaked. I can call Pepper and she fix up a press conference-"

"I'm not making a public statement. Go home, Tony."

It was a testament to the severity of the situation that he left without kicking up a fuss.

* * *

She was walking down the street the following day when she was approached by a kid wearing a Thor costume. She wasn't heartless enough to turn the boy away, but ended up spending a good fifteen minutes on answering his questions about Thor's eating habits. Did he eat broccoli, too? Aileen had been surprised that only one person had approached her today. Perhaps the media hadn't gone all out on the story like Cop Stripper had suggested? She hoped so. She had nothing against fame itself, but if she ever became a public figure, it would be of her own doing. Not out of pity or chance.

She turned up late for her first job interview. She had to skip directly to the second one. Even though she had her degree from Brooklyn Law, she hadn't managed to cash in on a job relating to that. Instead she was now applying as a grade school substitute teacher. Her pride was taking a lot of blows these days. She wasn't quite sure what to do. She almost had half the mind to stomp up to Fury's office and demand that he hired as the lawyer of the Avengers. At the moment that was her best shot at getting a steady job with a steady salary. Sadly. As it was, she would need to work several part time jobs to pay her rent. It had been impossible to get a job interview for any full time jobs. Apparently, experience was all that mattered nowadays. Nobody wanted to hire a rookie. Then again, this was New York, so what had she expected?

"So, Miss Palmer is it?"

"Yes, sir."

"You are rather overqualified for this job."

The man should be happy that he was getting the opportunity to hire someone overqualified instead of the opposite. Aileen looked Mr. Haraway over. He was sitting behind his desk with his coffee mug in one hand and her CV spread out on the desktop. His fingers smudged the ink on the pages and she wondered where the grease came from. Junk food? She couldn't see any, but she could smell it. She hadn't thought of Loki in days, but now his face suddenly reappeared before her inner vision. She brushed it aside and focused on the situation at hand. She couldn't do anything about Loki. He showed up when he decided to show up.

"But I suppose that is only a good thing," Mr. Haraway said. "Do you have any class preferences?"

"Preferences? I thought substitute teachers just get called in whenever there is need?"

"It's a formality."

Aileen had grown accustomed to the swirl of ice that would enter her chest from time to time whenever Loki tapped into the backup magic she was storing for him. She had woken up this morning with that exact feeling plummeting low in her stomach. She hadn't thought much of it, since it happened regularly, but typically it stopped within a couple of hours. It was now going on the fifth hour. Something was up and she probably shouldn't ignore it for much longer.

"Obviously, my strengths aren't biology or chemistry. So anything pertaining to my degree should do as my preference."

"Well, yes, certainly. That makes sense."

She had no idea what she was doing in this office.

She wanted out.

Especially now that her chest was starting to feel like a balloon that was about to pop. She coughed into her hand and her palm came away with a faint sheen of frost in the center. She wiped it away with her other hand. She wasn't panicking yet. A lot of this stuff happened on a regular basis. But she most certainly didn't like the way that her palm was now gaining a faint blue hue where she had coughed into it.

Blue hue?

"I'm sorry, Mr. Haraway. I need to make an important phone call. Can we take a short break?"

The man nodded and smiled wider. "I will have the employment papers ready for when you return."

Apparently, she had gotten the job. She would have thanked him, but she was working rather hard on keeping her hand out of view, so a handshake was out of the question. She nodded politely and walked out of the office under the pretense that she was about to make a call. She made no call. She made a mad dash for the bathrooms, turned on the hot tap and shoved her hand directly into the spray of hot water. It burnt and tears sprung into her eyes. Her makeup wasn't waterproof and she tipped her head skywards to keep the tears from overflowing her eyes. She was a professional and she was in the middle of a job interview. Fuck it if her hand hurt as though she had just shoved it into a bag full of hot coal. She had to finish this interview. She couldn't start bawling her eyes out because her hand had turned blue and was so inhumanly sensitive that she thought it had been skinned alive.

"What… blue?"

She turned off the tap and looked down at her hand. It was powder blue. Her hand was a light powder blue from wrist to the tips of her fingers. The pain had stopped. Both in her chest and in her hand. That was probably because she had stopped dousing it with hot water, which it clearly did not like. But it was blue.

With that last thought in mind, Aileen dug forth her gloves and slid them on. She winced when they chafed the overly sensitive skin of her left hand. She would finish her interview. It was probably just a Loki-instigated frostbite. It would disappear with time.

When she returned to Mr. Haraway's office, she signed the papers and left with her hand still attached to her body. She had been prepared for it to fall off. If it had done so, the glove would have kept it in place, but it probably still wouldn't have been a very nice feeling.

* * *

It was eight in the evening when Aileen caved in and called Tony.

"I need to talk to Thor. Is he there or is he back in Asgard?"

She had picked up an apple with the intention of eating it. She had been looking over her employment contract and had mistakenly picked up the apple with her powder blue hand. When she had taken a bite of it, she had nearly chipped her teeth. She had stared hard at the frozen apple. Then at her hand. Then she had dropped the apple to the floor and had gingerly picked up her phone with her human hand. Because her left hand was no longer human. It was blue and it was inhuman. She didn't turn things into gold by touching them. She turned them into ice.

She had called Tony.

"He's here," Tony greeted her over the phone. "Why do you need to talk to him? He doesn't like phones."

"Just get him on the phone-"

"This course of action is highly unadvisable."

Aileen whipped around in her seat and almost toppled off the armchair when she found Loki sitting on her couch. He was studying the beige floral pattern of the fabric. The couch and her bed were the only things that Aileen had picked herself. Tony had picked everything else. Loki's distaste with the couch showed in the way that his lips were curled into a slight seer. Aileen hadn't sensed his approach. She hadn't even felt him sitting there, almost right next to her. Had she lost that ability when her hand had turned blue? Because then that was a shitty deal. She would rather be able to monitor Loki's nearby presence than be able to turn things to ice.

"Never mind, Tony," she said into the phone. "I'll catch Thor another day."

She ended the call perhaps a bit too spontaneously, but Tony didn't call her back. She didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

"I didn't feel you approaching," she said to Loki. He looked up from the couch and she was struck with a reminder of their last conversation. She felt the need to sit up straighter and cross her legs.

"Do you typically feel me approaching?"

"Hear you approaching. I didn't hear you. SHIELD has bugged the apartment. You can't be here."

"If you are referring to SHIELD's inferior attempt at keeping a log of activity within your home, you need not worry. I will not appear on it."

She was clutching her hand in her lap. "I need you to look at my hand."

"That would be why I am here," he answered and gestured for her to move closer. She had been afraid to touch anything close to room temperature since her incident with the water tap. She had deduced that warm stuff was bad, so she had expected it to hurt when Loki started examining her hand. Body temperature was higher than room temperature, after all. She was proved wrong when Loki's grip on her hand turned out to be pleasantly neutral. She almost said so, but didn't want to interrupt him in his examination.

"I put it under hot water," she said when the silence became too stifling.

"That was foolish."

"It's the natural reaction to feeling cold. You warm yourself up."

He let go of her hand and stood up from the couch.

"The apprentice has surpassed the teacher," he said.

"What?"

"You appear to have reversed the flow of energy. Or balanced it out. I do not know which yet. Or, in words that you are more likely to comprehend, you are drawing active use of the energy inside you instead of passively storing it."

His magic had manifested in her hand? She could now tap into the magic that he had stored inside her? And not just the other way around?

"I can use your magic?"

"You cannot," he said with a lazy flick of his wrist. "It takes centuries to access and master such energy."

"But you just said I can draw active use of your magic and not just passively store it?"

"It draws use of you. As proven by your hand. I assume you did not actively try to do that yourself?"

She could see his point. "Can you do something about it? Can you stop it?"

He looked her in the eyes and she wished that she had had the time to get proper lighting installed in the apartment. The lonely lamp to her left cast shadows onto Loki's face that was sinister and foreboding in nature. It didn't help that he was standing up and she was still sitting on the couch. She decided to remedy that. She stood up to even out the odds, though Loki still towered above her with his impressive height. She refused to feel intimidated in her own home, but she was finding it increasingly hard. Perhaps it was because this truly was her own home? If Loki went nuts, there was no Tony to sweep in and save the day. She was on her own. In her own home. And Loki was with her.

"It's not very practical," she said. "Or human. Or very pretty, for that matter."

She thought she heard Loki laugh.

"Well?" she prompted. "Are you going to answer me?"

"I find your hand much prettier than the rest of you," he spoke lightly. She didn't know if she should feel offended or flattered.

"Will you turn it back to normal?"

"I will look into it."

"That's it?" she asked. "That's your parting comment? You will look into it? What if I'm dead when you finally manage to squeeze in some time for the crapload of physical health issues you shovel onto me? I didn't enter this vessel arrangement with you, so that you can dismiss-"

"What if you died because I acted rashly and forewent research in favor of immediate action? Would that be preferable to you?"

"You told Fury you fixed me. This is not fixing me. What if he sees-"

Loki grew tired of her bitching. At least that was what she concluded. One moment he was there, and the next he was gone. She felt like crying. She had always dealt with her own issues without the help of others. She had always been frighteningly independent. Stupidly so, she would admit that now. But this was so far out of her reach that she couldn't fix it alone. This was the work of a God and with her human limitations she had no way of countering it. If she died from this, she was going to hunt Loki's ass all the way back to Asgard.

* * *

**A/N: **Surprisingly, I'm not dead. I've edited the entire story and I've posted this new chapter. Hope you guys find it to your liking. Oh, and does anybody feel that the pace of the story is too fast? Too many quick jumps ahead? Well, if you, I'll love to hear from you, because I'm sort of worried about that myself.


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